Interview: Kappler Now Leads N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Dan Way, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Organization's onetime research director takes helm as state prepares for 2018 election cycle


    It was a homecoming for Raleigh native Jonathan Kappler in October when he became executive director of the North Carolina FreeEnterprise Foundation. He previously worked there as research director, a role in which he won acclaim for his nonpartisan analysis of state politics. Most recently the summa cum laude graduate of Appalachian State University served as interim vice president of federal relations and director of state government relations for the UNC system. Kappler, who holds a master's degree in public policy from American University, sat down with Carolina Journal associate editor Dan Way to talk about his vision for the nonprofit organization that people turn to for its political research and analysis and educational programming to strengthen the state's business community.


Jonathan Kappler says NCFEF will continue election briefings, candidate forums, and other programs along with political analysis. (CJ photo by Don Carrington)

    DW: You've been in the new position a short while. What have you noticed has changed about the organization, and what is familiar and part of its bedrock?

    JK: Coming back in as executive director provides an opportunity to expand my skill set into more administrative and financial management of the organization. Before I was kind of protected from that aspect, and I was able to focus on just research and analysis of North Carolina politics in an objective sense. Now I'm responsible for a whole suite of things, with both the programming and kind of the running of the organization. Being the executive director of a 501(c)3 nonprofit, fundraising is always on top of mind, and so that's one thing that I'm kind of getting my arms around now in this new environment. Fortunately, I have a great board that's very engaged to help with that. And what has really changed is in an environment where you have to rely on multiple sources of revenue, my predecessor Joe Stewart did a great job of thinking through other opportunities to bring resources into the organization, and one of those is through sponsorships of new programming. One is a partnership of a program that we have created with UNC-TV, the "Bottom Line" TV show that we launched in January that I'll be participating in instead of Joe. And then also doubling down on our marquee programs that were already existing like the Leadership Luncheon at the end of the year in December when we bring in state leaders to speak to the business community, a kind of a celebratory, nice event.

    DW: How have you been spending your days transitioning? What's a typical day look like?

    A: I think a typical day is not typical. ... One of the things we do is provide presentations to trade associations and companies around the state. My second day on the job I was on the road giving a presentation primarily focused on redistricting and demographic changes in the state. So a typical day includes phone conversations and meetings with business leaders, political figures, folks who are involved in running campaigns, trying to constantly keep my finger on the pulse of what's happening in North Carolina politics, make sure that I'm up to date on what's happening. It's such a dynamic environment. You have to really pay attention to that pretty consistently. Keeping an eye on social media, Twitter primarily because everything is moving at the speed of Twitter these days. And also making sure that I've got my arms around the organization aspects that I need to be minding, the administrative things, management pieces, and of course working with my very able colleague, Wilma Herrera. She keeps me between the ditches on things.

    JK: You were director of state government relations with UNC. What made you decide to give that up and return? Was that a difficult decision?

    A: I really enjoyed my almost five years with the UNC system, where I was given the opportunity for a number of different stretch assignments including coordinating President [Margaret] Spellings' transition into office, and then planning and executing her tour of the system in her first 100 days in office. A fabulous experience. It pushed me, and I grew a lot through that time. Partly as a result of all of those new and different experiences, I felt like I was ready to take on a new and different challenge. Moving away from the advocacy role that I had been in into a situation where I'm going back to nonpartisan political research and analysis, which is really partly just where my heart is. I'm really interested in that, and I think that's where my skill set is best utilized for the state's business community, and the public at large.

    Q: Joe Stewart put his brand on NCFEF. Is he a tough act to follow, and do you feel any pressure or need to put your own stamp on the organization?

    JK: I feel pressure to be funnier than I think I am because Joe's a very dynamic individual who's hilarious. Given that the role is to deliver quite a few presentations, in 2016 Joe delivered over 150 presentations around the state. We'll see if I get anywhere close to that. He's an entertainer, and a great explainer of this stuff, so there certainly is a high standard to meet there. I'm excited to see how I can fill that role. I love North Carolina politics, and have for a long time. I was that weird guy in high school who liked state-level politics. I was a page in the [state] House and Senate. ... I am excited for the opportunity, and also excited to execute on some new programming that Joe had initiated as he was stepping away, and so I'm looking forward - as we enter into a very dynamic election cycle - to be able to execute some new things.

    DW: What can we expect from NCFEF under your leadership? What favorite programs will we see, and what might we see that is new and exciting?

    JK: Joe had gotten "Bottom Line," the TV show with UNC-TV, off the ground, and had several episodes. That's on hiatus at the moment allowing me to get my feet underneath me, and then we'll relaunch in January with UNC-TV, tweaking the format potentially on that, and then moving forward after that proof of concept has been validated. And then we're going to continue on with our marquee programming, a lot of the things that people really like about the Free Enterprise Forum - candidate forums, elections briefings, presentations, consistent analysis about what's happening in North Carolina politics. When I was there previously at the Free Enterprise Foundation we did a lot of content generation ourselves in providing information in written form about campaign finance and polling, and demographic changes, and what was happening in the news, what the status of various races were at various levels across the state. We'll definitely continue to do a lot of that. I'm also experimenting already with a variety of types of information, and the scope of information. What I mean by that is providing information that is very consistent and bite-size. Social media. I've started using Periscope to provide a quick 'This is what's in the headlines in North Carolina politics today,' and then trying to put that out every morning. We're archiving that on our websites. We're also getting back to aggregating political news around the state and nationally that's relevant to North Carolina politics. We'll have larger research projects and information. The business ratings of the ... General Assembly will be coming out here soon. It's really a mix. I'm trying to blend both my experience with the Free Enterprise Foundation, and the style and manner in which Joe ran the organization, and just try to get the best of both worlds there.

    DW: Any final thoughts?

    JK: I'd say that we focus so much on the politics of the state, but the business community in the state is changing as well, and it's interesting to think about a lot of home-grown ... companies that are not necessarily headquartered here anymore, that are part of larger consolidated entities. That's changing the nature of our business community and how they engage in state-level politics. For us that's both a challenge and a really interesting dynamic in the state, indicative of the more globalized approach that all of our communities are engaging in. That's an interesting thing, and maybe a difference a little bit for me from when I was here several years ago. But our goal is to provide that information, and for me personally and the organization broadly to be seen as a credible, and knowledgeable, indispensable source of information. I want to be approachable too. Given how crazy the environment can be at times, and how fast-moving it can be, I am always open to hearing new and different ideas. I'm not always right. My initial take might not always be the accurate assessment of things, so I definitely encourage feedback.
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