Rodger Koopman is 47, a combat veteran and retired Air Force officer, a father, husband, teacher, volunteer coach with the UNC Field Hockey program, and a successful businessman.

He was born and raised in the Netherlands by parents who barely survived the Holocaust, and who were liberated by American and Canadian GIs. Thus Rodger was raised with an idealistic view of the United States. In the late seventies Rodger immigrated here in pursuit of the American Dream.

Young and poor, like many in the 1980’s, Rodger joined the US Air Force in 1983. In part so he could improve himself, and in part to pay back the country that saved his parents and other family members. At the time he had a high school diploma and six college credits. He joined at the lowest enlisted rank of E-1. Through hard work and dedication, three and a half years later Rodger had an Associate's degree, a Bachelor's degree, and a class date to enter the Air Force officer training school.

When Rodger became a 2nd Lieutenant he quickly acquired the nickname ‘Smiley’ because he smiles a lot. He went through the Air Force survival school in 1988 in preparation for flying status as an AWACS Weapons Director. After flying combat and counter-narcotics missions for three years Rodger got involved in software development for large-scale weapons systems, and later transitioned to working on highly classified satellite and communications systems. For example, he was hand-picked to go to DARPA and work on an emergency solution that provided satellite communications between the White House and military commanders in Bosnia.

During his last assignment Rodger was stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as the aide and executive officer to the general in charge of the entire US counter-terrorism program in South-West Asia (comprising all the Arabian countries and the Horn of Africa). Rodger worked with all the US embassies in the region and dealt with highly classified material pertaining to counter-terrorism and regional threat assessments. He also liaised with various intelligence agencies including the CIA.

Rodger obtained two Master's degrees while on active duty. He has a Master's of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma and a Master's of Science in Information Systems from Boston University. He also taught for eight years as adjunct faculty at several colleges and universities. Rodger is currently a volunteer teacher at the Wade Edwards Learning Lab and a volunteer coach with the UNC Women's Field Hockey program under coach Karen Shelton (UNC is one of the top-rated teams in the country).

In 1998 Rodger took the early retirement program offered by the Air Force to help with force reductions and moved to Silicon Valley to participate in the modern gold rush we know as the Internet boom. He was hired by a small startup software company as employee #38 and helped build that company to 220 employees and over $30 Million in annual sales before it was acquired by Itron in 2002. As part of that acquisition Rodger was offered a great leadership opportunity in Raleigh.

Rodger's wife, M'Liss, is a veterinarian and a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves. M'Liss deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003 and was gone for almost a year. During that time Rodger was a single parent for their son who at the time was only three years old. It was stressful, but because of great neighbors and access to good daycare Rodger was able to manage and keep his job. Rodger and M'Liss met when they were both still on active duty. M'Liss and Rodger are the proud parents of a rambunctious 7-year old who attends school in the Wake County public school system. Rodger has a 22-year-old daughter from a prior marriage who recently graduated from a small private Baptist college in rural Georgia. She's working on getting her teaching credentials because she wants to become a teacher for Head Start. Rodger's son-in-law is working on a Master's degree in English literature.

Rodger proudly served his country and now wants to serve you.