About Wayne King
Author, Writer, artist, businessman, Iroquois, outdoorsman, activist, musician and recovering politician; all of these describe Wayne King.
King began his work life as a Mountain Guide, a life that connected him intimately with the natural world and has remained a touchstone for him. The course of his path since those days has led him to an early career as an elected official with three terms as a State Representative and another three terms as State Senator - the youngest in NH history - though NH's constitution requires one to be 30 before they are eligible to seek a Senate seat! In 1994 Wayne was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Hampshire. Already in a race against the nation's most popular incumbent Governor, King odds were made worse by the double whammy of a national landslide for Republicans. Needless to say, he did not prevail.
Life after politics took Wayne to West Africa as founder of The Electronic Community - a team of social entrepreneurs working on social and development issues in West Africa. In 1997 King and his lifelong friend Kip Bates played a pivotal role in bringing the Internet to West Africa, working with Nigerian born and naturalized US citizen Dr. Chidi Nwachukwu and Dr. Adhiambo Odaga, of the Ford Foundation, to bring more than 500 NGOs in West Africa into the Internet age, providing them with hardware, software and training through the generosity and vision of the Ford Foundation. On their first visit to Nigeria, King and his team faced a harrowing ordeal at the hands of Dictator Sanny Abacha's secret police. Arrested and held at gunpoint for more than five hours, they managed to convince five soldiers and police armed with automatic rifles that their mission was a friendly one and gained their release from a Lagos jail. Abacha died mysteriously just minutes after the team's departure from Nigeria and the country embarked on its rocky road to democratic rule. King remains quiet on the nexus of these events (with tongue planted firmly in cheek).
In 2004 King launched Heart of New Hampshire Magazine and for five years published one of New Hampshire's most acclaimed lifestyle magazines, even as he continued his work in West Africa with Ford Foundation, the World Bank and USAID. Sadly, that work continued without the able hand of his friend Chidi who succumbed to leukemia in 2003
Most recently, Wayne has served as CEO and President of MOP Environmental Solutions, Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space.
King’s experiences and interests continue to run a broad gamut of the communications industry, as well as public policy, economic and community development and his writings and art reflect this. Most recently his focus has turned to the more creative corners of his mind and heart, focusing on his art and writing.
In the past five years Wayne has won numerous art competitions and his work is becoming widely distributed and sought after. He has also published 5 books: one non-fiction, three fine art books in addition to his most recent novel "Sacred Trust.
His biweekly column, "The View from Rattlesnake Ridge" is published by The NH Center for Public Interest Journalism (InDepthNH.org). His work can also be found on numerous other Blogs and Fine Art websites.
His new podcasts: New Hampshire Secrets, Legends and Lore; and, The Radical Centrist have just been launched as of January 2019.