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President and CEO
Began: July 1, 2015
Click for larger image; right click larger image to download.Dr. Blake Flanders serves as President and CEO for the Kansas Board of Regents.
Before serving in his current position, Dr. Flanders served as the Vice President for Workforce Development for the Kansas Board of Regents and provided executive leadership for the Kansas Postsecondary Technical Education Authority. In this role, he was the state leader for issues involving the state's postsecondary education and training system, including targeted expansion of engineering and nursing programs. Dr. Flanders also led the state-level evaluation of research proposals within the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
Born in Edson, Kansas, Dr. Flanders is a graduate of Colby Community College and Kansas State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science, Masters of Science in Animal Science, and Doctorate of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction. Before serving as Vice President, Dr. Flanders served as the liaison between the Kansas Board of Regents and the Kansas Department of Commerce (2004-2007), Vice President of Instructional Services at Manhattan Area Technical College (1998-2004), and as a member of the faculty at Butler Community College (1988-1998).
City: Wichita
Term Ends: June 2027
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Jon Rolph is President and CEO of Thrive Restaurant Group, which owns and operates 172 restaurants including Applebee’s, Carlos O’Kelly’s, HomeGrown, Modern Market and BakeSale. Thrive is the nation’s second-largest Applebee’s franchisee with restaurants in 15 states across the Midwest, Carolinas and Appalachia. In July 2024, Thrive signed a deal with Qdoba to open 30 new restaurants in North and South Carolina over the next few years.
Jon was a two-time Student Body President at Baylor University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2001. After graduation, Jon worked with college student leaders as an intern for the National Student Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. He returned to Kansas in 2002 to work in the family-owned businesses started by his father, David, and his uncle, Darrel Rolph.
Jon has held several key positions in the company, including restaurant-level operations, V.P. of Administration and Marketing, and COO of Carlos O’Kelly’s, eventually succeeding his father as President of Sasnak Management, which was rebranded in early 2019 to Thrive Restaurant Group.
Jon has served on the boards of several local and national organizations, including the Wichita Children’s Home, United Way of the Plains, the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, Visioneering Wichita (as Chairman), Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, the Center for Combating Human Trafficking, and the Wichita Metro YMCA boards. His current board memberships and affiliations include Vice-Chairman of the Greater Wichita Partnership, Board of Directors of INTRUST Bank, Chairman of Centralized Supply Chain Services (CSCS), Chairman of the Applebee’s Franchise Business Council, and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents.
Jon and his wife, Lauren, are both 5th-generation Kansans. They have been married for over 18 years and have six children, ages four to fifteen.
