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Biographies

Jeff Foxworthy

Jeff Foxworthy is one of the most respected and successful comedians in the country. He is the largest selling comedy-recording artist in history, a multiple Grammy Award nominee and best selling author of more than 22 books. Widely known for his redneck jokes, his act goes well beyond that to explore the humor in everyday family interactions and human nature, a style that has been compared to Mark Twain’s.

Foxworthy is currently hosting the show Are Your Smarter Than A 5th Grader, which will air on FOX after American Idol. He was most recently seen in a show for CMT called, Foxworthy’s Big Night Out, which he executive produced and starred in. The DVD for the show will be released in April 2007 around the time Jeff hosts the CMT Music Awards. Prior to this show, Foxworthy starred in and executive produced the television series, Blue Collar TV, which he created for the WB network. Blue Collar TV came about due to the success of Blue Collar Comedy Tour, The Movie and the concert tour of the same name. The movie premiered on Comedy Central and was the highest rated movie in the channel’s history. It is available on DVD/VHS and to date has sold more than 4 million units. The soundtrack for this movie has been RIAA certified gold (more than 500,000 units) and continues to chart in the Billboard Comedy Chart’s top 10.

Prior to this show, Foxworthy starred in and executive produced the television series, Blue Collar TV, which he created for the WB network. Blue Collar TV came about due to the success of Blue Collar Comedy Tour, The Movie and the concert tour of the same name. The movie premiered on Comedy Central and was the highest rated movie in the channel’s history. It is available on DVD/VHS and to date has sold more than 4 million units. The soundtrack for this movie has been RIAA certified gold (more than 500,000 units) and continues to chart in the Billboard Comedy Chart’s top 10.

Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again, the sequel to the first film has sold more than 3 million units since its release on December 7, 2004. It premiered on Comedy Central February 13, 2005 and was the 3rd most watched telecast ever leading the channel to its most watched day, weekend, and week in network history.

In March of 2006, the Blue Collar boys reunited to shoot Blue Collar Comedy Tour-One For The Road in Washington, DC at the Warner Theater. The movie had its world premiere on Comedy Central, June 4, 2006 and was one of the highest rated shows on Comedy Central for 2006. The soundtrack was released on June 6, 2006 and is nominated for a 2006 Grammy award.

Jeff’s book The Redneck Dictionary was released on October 18, 2005 and is based on the popular words of the south Jeff recounts in his stand up act. Due to their popularity, the redneck words became a regular sketch on Blue Collar TV. The book went as high as number 2 on the New York Times Bestseller List. The Redneck Dictionary II was released October 24, 2006 and also became a New York Times Bestseller. The Redneck Dictionary III will be released in late 2007. Jeff is also releasing a children’s book in late 2007 from Harper Collins Publishing.

Jeff was the voice of Reggie the Rooster in the Warner Bros. film Racing Stripes, which was released on January 14, 2005. He is also the voice of the animated character Lyle in the Disney movie Fox and The Hound II, which is now available on home video.

July 6, 2004 marked the release of Jeff’s final solo comedy cd titled Have Your Loved Ones Spayed or Neutered. The cd contains all new material. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Comedy Charts and was Jeff’s second highest selling album debut.

In April 1999, The Foxworthy Countdown, a weekly syndicated three-hour radio show, debuted featuring Jeff bringing fans the current Top 25 country hits as well as interviews with stars. The show is carried in over two hundred and twenty markets across the United States. Jeff received a CMA nomination in 2001 for Broadcast Personality of the Year.

Jeff also has an HBO special and two Showtime specials to his credit. With critical acclaim and rave reviews from the first special, Jeff landed his second Showtime special, which earned a Cable ACE Award nomination. Jeff has also been bestowed with a People’s Choice Award as “Favorite Male Newcomer” for The Jeff Foxworthy Show. He also won TNN’s “Comedian of the Year” three years in a row.

Jeff has a line of greeting cards and specialty products through American Greetings that are available at all Wal-Mart stores. In October 2003 The Nevada Gaming Commission granted approval for Aristocrat Technologies, Inc. to place its Jeff Foxworthy™ You Might Be A Redneck If…® video slot games in Nevada casinos. Station Casinos, Inc. was granted the right to introduce Aristocrat’s Jeff Foxworthy games into its 11 Las Vegas valley casino properties exclusively for 45 days prior to the game’s release to other Las Vegas off-Strip casino properties.

Away from the stage, an interest which Jeff holds near and dear is the Duke University Children’s Hospital in Durham, NC. Jeff is the Honorary Chairman of the Duke Children’s Classic Golf Tournament.

With Jeff’s help, the hospital, which specializes in treating children with cancer, has raised tens of millions in the last ten years.

This Georgia native remains true to his southern roots and resides with his wife and two daughters in Atlanta.

This Georgia native remains true to his southern roots and resides with his wife and two daughters in Atlanta. An avid sportsman and wildlife manager, Jeff has a love for the outdoors and especially big whitetails. On his Georgia farm, The Beloved Homeplace, Jeff and his foreman, Glenn Garner, manage the property under the Tecomate Food Plot System and have grown many world-class whitetails! Jeff has pursued big bucks across the continent and shares his passion for trophy whitetails each week on The Bucks of Tecomate TV show.

David Morris

David Morris (“Morris”) grew up hunting and fishing in South Alabama. His love for the outdoors led him to get a master’s degree in biology from Auburn University. While at Auburn, David worked summers and holidays as a professional bass guide on nearby Lake Eufaula. After graduation, David founded Georgia’s Burnt Pine Plantation, a 14,000-acre commercial whitetail hunting operation, and served as its managing partner for 20 years. Under David’s management, Burnt Pine developed one of the most intensive quality buck management programs in the South, allowing his clients to harvest nearly 2,000 bucks, of which almost 50 percent were 8-pointers or better. At Burnt Pine, David began experimenting with food plots as a primary nutritional source for deer rather than only an attractant, marking the beginning of research that would eventually lead to the development of the intensive food plot management system now known as the Tecomate Food Plot SystemSM.

In 1976, David and three partners founded Game & Fish Publications, which now publishes 30 state and regional hunting and fishing magazines covering all Lower 48 states. In 1982, North American Whitetail, the nation’s premier deer-only magazine, was added to its stable of publications. He served as editor and executive publisher of Game & Fish Publications until stepping away from day-to-day magazine duties in late 1990 to write, publish books and lecture on hunting and whitetail management under the company name of Venture Press.

From the mid-1980s through 2000, David worked with magazine partner Steve Vaughn and renown deer biologist Dr. James Kroll on Whitetail Magazine’s 2000-acre whitetail research facility, Fort Perry Plantation, near Columbus, Georgia, with the express goal being to develop cutting-edge management techniques for big whitetails on small tracts. This scientifically documented research eventually combined with remarkably similar work done concurrently by Dr. Gary Schwarz on El Tecomate Ranch in Texas to result in revolutionary new management techniques centered around intensive year-round food plots. This new management strategy employed year-round food plots to provide the mainstay of the deer’s diet, thereby exchanging seasonal and often low-nutrition native browse for year-round high-nutrition food plot forage. This groundbreaking strategy resulted in more and bigger deer than ever thought possible and held those deer closer to home … while improving the native habitat … all possible on tracts heretofore thought too small for trophy buck management.

David has written three books on whitetail hunting. His first book, Hunting Trophy Whitetails, is widely acclaimed as the most complete book ever written on the subject. His second book, Advanced Strategies For Trophy Whitetails, ranks near the top in all-time best selling hunting books. In addition to his many articles published in North American Whitetail and Game & Fish magazines, David’s articles have appeared in Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, Field & Stream and several other magazines. Additionally, he has published four other whitetail books – Hunting The Four Periods of the Rut by Dick Idol, Great Whitetail Hunts, Legendary Whitetails and World Record Whitetails by Gordon Whittington. David has a passion for big whitetails and has hunted them successfully throughout North America and has amassed one of the largest collections of personally taken trophy whitetails in the country.

In 1992, David bought a small ranch in the heart of western Montana’s whitetail country and has had amazing success there growing and attracting trophy whitetails and other big game animals with Tecomate food plots. Then, in 1998, he expanded his whitetail endeavors with the purchase of 3000-acre El Cazador Ranch in South Texas. Using what is now known as the Tecomate Food Plot System of intensive food plots as the core of his management program, David began growing lots of huge whitetails. Today, El Cazador is recognized as one on the top trophy whitetail ranches in the country and has been the focus of many magazine articles, TV shows and research projects.

In 2000, David joined forces with food plot pioneer Dr. Gary Schwarz to form Tecomate Wildlife Systems, a company literally forced into existence by the big bucks Gary and David were growing and the groundbreaking deer research they had done. Tecomate Wildlife Systems grew to be one of the country’s largest suppliers of wildlife management services and products, including the famous food-plot planting machine, the Plotmaster, and has helped managers and hunters throughout the nation realize their deer hunting dreams.

The success of the Tecomate Food Plot System and El Cazador Ranch has given David the opportunity to be a regular on many outdoor TV shows, including Realtree Outdoors, The Management Advantage, Gander Mountain’s “We Live Outdoors,” The World of Hunting and many others.

David and Gary have long helped people find, buy and management their own wildlife properties, and the demand for their help was so great that, largely from necessity, they again joined forces in 2007, along with famous comedian/sportsman Jeff Foxworthy and real estate professional Rick Olson, in a new real estate venture, Tecomate Properties, aimed at helping even more people realize their dream of owning and managing their own wildlife haven. As part of this venture, Tecomate is hosting, with David and Jeff co-hosting each episode, a new TV show on Versus Network titled Bucks of Tecomate, which will focus on game and land management and what is possible for even on small tracts, along with hunts for giant bucks and lots of fun.

Though David loves hunting, the outdoors and the outdoor business, these are not the most important things is his life. His personal relationship with his Lord Jesus Christ holds that place, along with his wonderful wife Debra and three daughters, Jennifer, Samantha and Kristin, who all share his love of the Lord and the outdoors.

Rick Olson

Tecomate is led by its President and CEO, Rick Olson. Prior to becoming a partner in Tecomate, he served as President of the Development Division for Rosen Associates in Palm Beach and Destin, Florida, and the President and CEO of Olson & Associates of NW Florida, Inc., which, with its impressive portfolio of harmonious, amenity-filled and picturesque communities, has become one of the leading real estate development firms in the southeastern United States.

Olson’s broad range of real estate experience includes site selection, acquisitions, underwriting, conceptual design, turnkey development, financing, leasing, and property management. He has been at the helm of numerous successful condominium, single-family residential, retail, health club and office development projects. Olson possesses an innate ability to assess the potential value of a vacant property and to manage the process with an attention to detail that ensures maximum profits.

Rans Thomas

Rans Thomas, Tecomate's Head Wildlife Biologist and Director of Tecomate Consulting is native too Georgia growing up on a farm in Wayne, County. Rans's father is an avid outdoorsman and introduced him and his brother to hunting at an early age. Rans took his first trophy buck, an Alabama 12 point, at age 12. His father left farming to begin a long and successful career in U.S. politics. This introduced him and his family to hunting experiences beyond the realm of their still cherished family farm. On one such trip to a GA hunting plantation Rans met and befriended the game manager of the property. The idea of having a job managing a property for wildlife and hunting engrossed young Thomas. Ironically, that very game manager that mentored Rans at such a young age had once worked for David Morris at Burnt Pine Plantation.

While still in High School at the age of 17 he took his first job on a hunting plantation working in the afternoons. The following year, just out of High School, he took his first steps in the field of Wildlife Management when he was hired by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to trap black bears and wood ducks for research and plant food plots in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The experience of living and working with wildlife in the swamp that summer set the course of his career.

In 1991 Thomas attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, GA. He graduated in 1993 with Associates degrees in Wildlife and Forest Management. After ABAC he worked for a while in the hunting industry but realized his ultimate goal was to become a Wildlife Biologist so he went back to school and obtained a Bachelors degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Georgia.

Out of College he began taking contract jobs on several hunting plantations in the southeast including The Lodge at Cabin Bluff owned by the Sea Island Company. Learning from each job he used them as stepping stones with each plantation growing in size and each position in rank. In 2000, at age 28, a seasoned Thomas became the youngest person ever to be hired as General Manager of the world renowned Groton Plantation in S.C. http://www.warnell.uga.edu/h/alumni/flog/flog/pdf/logS04.pdf (Page 18). Groton's history is steeped with names of acclaimed outdoor authors and wildlife researchers such as Walter Rosene, Herbert Stoddard, and James Kilgo. It was here that Thomas had his chance to really apply his knowledge by spearheading the on-the-ground efforts to restore a once abundant population of wild quail. In his three year tenure the wild quail hunting stats rose from 1 covey find per hour of hunting too 4.5, that years record for S.C. low country plantations. Thomas also initiated a drive to improve the deer hunting at Groton by running the first trail camera census, improving harvest data collection efforts, planting summer food plots for deer, and requiring heavier doe harvest.

Reaching an apex at Groton Thomas moved on to develop a new Associates Degree course of study at a Technical College in Statesboro, GA. While developing and teaching the course of Wildlife and Plantation Management he also began consulting for private landowners in that region. In a very short time his consulting career began to flourish. As he was about to move into full time consulting on his own he met David Morris of Tecomate. David had inquired within the industry for a wildlife biologist to head up his brain child – Tecomate Wildlife Consulting. The meeting was seemingly predestined.

Thomas started the Tecomate Wildlife Consulting Division in early 2005. After his intensive training in the Tecomate System by David and Gary he contracted and trained 10 other biologists to serve on the network. Within two years he was personally working with clients in 10 different states on a land base well over 200,000 acres, while the network served clients in all regions of the U.S.

Through his credentials and Tecomate's huge appeal to the hunting public Thomas has connected with numerous corporate and high profile clients. He consults for Cousin's Properties, INC. on their new hunting community development in Newnan, GA named Blalock Lakes Hunt Club. Blalock Lakes is a recreational property development surpassing all others of its kind with a 180 acre Lake, 1500 acre wing shooting preserve, lodge and sporting clays available to 400 lot owners. http://www.blalocklakes.com/lifestyle/blalockexperts.php. Thomas also consults for Briar Rose Plantation owned by the Ginn Development Co., LLC,(web site under construction), Lonely Live Oak Plantation in MS owned by Barry Bellue, Founder, President and CEO of Thinkstream Technology http://www.thinkstream.com/company/exec_team.php, Rolling Pine Plantation owned by Howard and Cliff Sheppard of Howard Sheppard Inc. http://www.howardsheppard.com/howard-sheppard-georgia.aspx, and the Bradley Farms owed by the W.C. Bradley Co. http://www.wcbradley.com/index.asp.

Rans is also a professional musician - guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He still performs publicly and in 2002 he cut a CD of his own songs entitled "Dirt Rich", the title track written about his family farm. Thomas pitched his music in Nashville but even after getting some strong encouragement to pursue music from some music execs and receiving some radio play he decided to devote his attention to his wildlife career. Ironically it has taken him closer to music celebrity than his musical aspirations. He has worked with Steve Farris, co-founder and lead guitarist of the 80s rock band "Mister Mister" and avid Nebraska outdoorsman. He is currently consulting for Gary LeVox, Lead Singer for the country music chart topping band "Rascal Flatts" www.rascalflatts.com on Gary's newly purchased TN tract – The Fast Cars and Freedom Farm. In January of 2007 Gary and Rans will be bow hunting together in Illinois for an episode of "The Bucks of Tecomate".