Loyd Benson joined the Board of Trustees of Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, Kingfisher, Oklahoma on March 10, 1997 and became the President and Principal Executive Officer in February, 2003.  In this expanded role, he has responsibility not only for general operations of the Cooperative, but for economic development efforts in the communities served by Pioneer as well.

He also serves as the public voice of the Cooperative on issues throughout the Pioneer service area.

Benson earned a BA Degree, with a major in Government and Economics, as well as a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Oklahoma. He also served as a Captain in the United States Army.

Benson has practiced law in Southwest Oklahoma for the past forty years in addition to his business interests, and legislative service. His extensive banking experience comes from being a principal owner of a bank for over thirty years. He also owns and manages farming and ranching operations. He was elected to the Oklahoma Legislature in 1984 in a special election where he eventually served as Majority Floor Leader, Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and finally retired in 2002 as Speaker Emeritus. He currently represents Oklahoma on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform Laws, which develops model legislation for all fifty state legislatures.

At Pioneer, Benson negotiated a Strategic Roaming Alliance for Pioneer Cellular Network with Sprint, which doubled the number of cellular customers and increased the company’s service area by 400%. This included the construction of 167 new cellular towers. He also negotiated the acquisition of thirty-four cable television systems from Cebridge Communications which overlayed part of Pioneer’s service area.

Benson serves as a Director on the Oklahoma Cable & Telecommunications Association, as President-Elect of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, an organization that annually honors Oklahoma’s most outstanding educators and top 100 academic students, and was a Charter Trustee of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. He has received numerous public service awards from both state and national organizations.

Pioneer is a multi-service communications company with more than 140,000 total customers in 30 Oklahoma counties. In operation since 1953, Pioneer is the third largest telephone cooperative in the United States. Pioneer was an early leader in launching pure digital IPTV in July 2004 and today has over 6,000 TV customers, over 16,000 high-speed internet customers, and continues to grow by offering robust bundled services. Pioneer provides an array of communications products and services, including Local Telephone Service, Digital TV,Cellular, High-Speed Internet, Long Distance, Paging, Security Systems, Key System Sales/Maintenance and Directory Advertisement.