Arkansas Money and Politics January 2021

JANUARY 2021/armoneyandpolitics.com

amp HEALTH SECRETARY DR. JOSE ROMERO LEADS THE NEW CLASS

By Mark Carter/34

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 15 THE DIGS OF THE DEAL 50

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MATT BELL

on being named one of the 2021 Arkansas Influencers!

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y t n ou C on ers Jeff The Gateway to Southeast Arkansas

The Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, Arkansas is an organization dedicated to the growth and development of Jefferson County. The Alliance works to create opportunity for the citizens of Jefferson County by attracting and retaining investment from industrial companies.

These companies provide primary jobs for local residents and stimulate the economy, creating a higher quality of life for the community. It is our mission to promote and represent Jefferson County, Arkansas as the ideal location for business investment and economic success.

The Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, Arkansas congratulates

Allison J.H. Thompson, CEcD, FM, EDFP on being named one of the 2021 Arkansas Money & Politics Influencers

F Multimodal: port, rail, interstate, multiple highways and regional airport

F Competitively priced real estate opportunities available in two established industrial neighborhoods F Jefferson Industrial Park is a 785-acre park with all

utilities, streets and rail in place or readily available

F Harbor Industrial District is a 372-acre park located on an Arkansas River slackwater harbor and home to Foreign Trade Zone 14J

F The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (4-year

university) and Southeast Arkansas College (2-year community college)

F Well trained workforce

Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, Arkansas

JAN UA RY 2 02 1

510 Main Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas 71601 870-535-0110 www.jeffersoncountyalliance.com 2

ARMON E YA N D P OL ITIC S.COM

AY Magazine’s Person of the Year

Matt Troup inspires work force, redefines healthcare in Conway, River Valley

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Changing the Culture

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Compassion Driven

Growing Together

JANUARY CONTENTS

6 | Plugged In 7 | Editor’s & Publisher’s Letters 8 | Viewpoint 10 | Discovery Economics 12 | Newsmakers 24 | Exec Q&A

Two of the state’s tourism heavyweights — Stacy Hurst and Louis Cella — talk 2020 and prospects for the new year.

62 | Tax prep

2021 unfolds amidst a pandemic and a transition in leadership in D.C. Experts give us their takes on what it all might mean for your taxes.

50 | THE DIGS OF THE DEAL In politics, deals oftentimes are made outside the walls of the capitol. AMP’s new standing feature looks at the settings for political history in Arkansas.

88 | Starkel’s story

Former Razorback quarterback Nick Starkel opens up about his time in Fayetteville and how he found his way to San Jose.

94 | Keeping up with the boneses The health care industry in Arkansas is working hard to stay ahead of demand, as evidenced by hospital construction.

96 | The Last Word

Catholic High’s Steve Straessle on finding the meaning of truth in a crazy world.

Enough said.

ON THE COV E R 68 | DRESSED FOR SUCCESS Dressing for success may mean something different than it did 20 years ago, but local haberdasheries cater to the new working professional.

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Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas’ Secretary of Health, leads the 2021 AMP Influencers of the Year class.

Photographed by Jamison Mosley at the Arkansas Department of Health in Little Rock, Romero found himself thrust into the state spotlight in 2020.

Page 36

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JANUARY CONTENTS

PUBLISHER

Heather Baker | hbaker@armoneyandpolitics.com EDITOR Mark Carter | mcarter@armoneyandpolitics.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Dustin Jayroe | djayroe@armoneyandpolitics.com ONLINE EDITOR Tyler Hale | thale@armoneyandpolitics.com COPY EDITOR Lisa Fischer | lfischer@armoneyandpolitics.com STAFF WRITERS Katie Zakrzewski | katie@armoneyandpolitics.com

15 | SOLDIERING ON The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been substantial, but state and federal grants have helped businesses stay open.

ART DIRECTOR Jamison Mosley | jmosley@armoneyandpolitics.com PRODUCTION MANAGER Rebecca Robertson | rrobertson@armoneyandpolitics.com DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Kellie McAnulty | kmcanulty@armoneyandpolitics.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Lora Puls | lpuls@armoneyandpolitics.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Greg Churan | gchuran@armoneyandpolitics.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Tonya Higginbotham | thigginbotham@armoneyandpolitics.com Mary Funderburg | mary@armoneyandpolitics.com Tonya Mead | tmead@armoneyandpolitics.com Kyle May | kyle@armoneyandpolitics.com ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jacob Carpenter | ads@armoneyandpolitics.com CIRCULATION Ginger Roell | groell@armoneyandpolitics.com ADMINISTRATION Casandra Moore | admin@armoneyandpolitics.com

CEO | Vicki Vowell TO ADVERTISE CALL

501-244-9700 or contact hbaker@armoneyandpolitics.com TO SUBSCRIBE | 501-244-9700 ADVISORY COMMITTEE

18 | SPREADING THE GOOD NEWS Economic developers in Arkansas are helping spread the word that the state remains open for business.

Joyce Elliott, Arkansas State Senator; Gretchen Hall, CEO, Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau; Stacy Hurst, Secretary, Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage & Tourism; Heather Larkin, CEO, Arkansas Community Foundation; Elizabeth Pulley, CEO, Children’s Advocacy Centers; Gina Radke, CEO, Galley Support Innovations; Steve Straessle, Principal, Little Rock Catholic High School; Kathy Webb, Representative, Little Rock City Board

CONTRIBUTORS

Angela Forsyth, Evin Demirel, Dwain Hebda, Carl Kozlowski, David Moody, Steve Straessle, Stan Zylowski

82 | A NEW LANDSCAPE Upcoming TV deals and potential realignment may change college football in the near future. Arkansas stands to benefit.

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AMP magazine is published monthly, Volume III, Issue 5 AMP magazine (ISSN 2162-7754) is published monthly by AY Media Group, 910 W. Second St., Suite 200, Little Rock, AR 72201. Periodicals postage paid at Little Rock, AR, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to AMP, 910 W. Second St., Suite 200, Little Rock, AR 72201. Subscription Inquiries: Subscription rate is $28 for one year (12 issues). Single issues are available upon request for $5. For subscriptions, inquiries or address changes, call 501-244-9700. The contents of AMP are copyrighted, and material contained herein may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher. Articles in AMP should not be considered specific advice, as individual circumstances vary. Products and services advertised in the magazine are not necessarily endorsed by AMP. Please recycle this magazine.

JA N UA RY 2021

PLUGGED IN

DECEMBER 2020/armoneyandpolitics.com

Rory Herndon, president of Xpress Boats in Hot Springs, led his company through a turbulent year, but one that included a silver lining for the outdoor recreation industry. Herndon, who posed for our December cover, is grateful for his “family” of employees.

XPRESS SKIPPER

RORY HERNDON HOT SPRINGS BOATMAKER PROVIDING SUPPLY FOR PANDEMIC DEMAND

By Mark Carter/10

OUTLOOK FOR ARKANSAS STEEL 14

ANDREW MEADORS’ WILD RIDE 68 $5 USD

Arkansas Children’s has named a new chief information officer.

Erin Parker has been named as a senior vice president and CIO for the Little Rock-based health care system.

INSTAGRAM

FEEDBACK UCA PROFESSOR, HIGHWAY POLICE CHIEF NAMED TO TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE “Proud of you, Dr. Doug Voss! We have great representation in the State of Arkansas that has been named to the American Transportation Research advisory committee.”

Encore Bank NESTLE INVESTING $100 MILLION TO EXPAND JONESBORO FACILITY “Way to go, Jonesboro!”

Jim Fram SOUTHERN BANCORP CEO DARRIN WILLIAMS NAMED TO 2020 BLOOMBERG 50 LIST “Outstanding and so well deserved! Congrats Darrin Williams!”

Wayne Miller

Sowell Management continues expansion and hires Amber Krier as managing director of business development.

THE SUN ALSO RISES: WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE SOLAR INDUSTRY IN ARKANSAS Great article by Arkansas Money & Politics about the future of solar in Arkansas. Our co-founders Josh Davenport and Heather Nelson weighed in on where they see the industry headed!

Seal Solar

TOP ONLINE ARTICLES 1. Power Women 2020 2. At Home, Far From Home: Welspun Brings Different Cultures Together in Little Rock 3. Dawn Scott Departing THV-11 in December 2020 4. Keet Family Bringing New Restaurant Concept to Arkansas 5. Parker Named Chief Information Officer for Arkansas Children’s 6. Southern Bancorp CEO Darrin Williams Named to 2020 Bloomberg 50 List 7. Bentonville Remodelers Star in HGTV’s Fixer to Fabulous 8. Monteverdi Brings Personal Touch to KARK 9. Wild Ride: For Andrew Meadors, Arkansas’ Own Forrest Gump, It’s All About the Journey 10. Mike Huckabee Confirms Return to Arkansas

View our sister publication, AY About You magazine, at aymag.com. Email hbaker@aymag.com for more information.

JAN UA RY 2 02 1

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Jonelle Fulmer will be taking the reins of the Republican Party of Arkansas, becoming the first woman elected to serve as the organization’s chairperson.

Randy Palculict, AIA, of Jackson Brown Palculict Architects, has received the 2020 Dick Savage Memorial Award.

@AMPPOB ARMON E YA N D P OL ITIC S.COM

By Mark Carter

TWILIGHT TIME FOR FORMAL ATTIRE?

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erry once admonished George for wearing sweats full time. “You know the message you’re sending out to the world with these sweatpants? You’re telling the world, ‘I give up.’”

For those readers under 40, and we know you’re out there, that was a Seinfeld reference. And yes, Seinfeld is better than The Office. But even Seinfeld defers to The Andy Griffith Show.

Like many of you surely did, I spent the holidays in George mode. Coooostaaan-za!

That came to a screeching halt on the first Monday of the new year, of course. Back to reality and all. But these days, business casual seems to be slipping ever so closer to George and his sweats. Remote working, dress codes becoming more casual, hipster (dufus) office environments… Each leading to a redefining of contemporary work attire.

Even in the finest local haberdasheries, you’ll see fewer suits nowadays. Inside this issue, we take a look at some of the state’s prominent men’s clothiers and those trends shaping the Arkansas workspace.

It never made much sense to me why society insisted on men wearing suits and ties to work in climates that made doing so

almost unbearable. But one thing’s for sure — the suit does indeed make the man.

And in the case of me and George, so do the sweats.

HOGELUJAH The impact of Sam Pittman on the Razorback football program, and by extension the entire state, perhaps can’t be measured. The 2020 season ended on a down note, sure. The Hogs — players, coaches, trainers, equipment staff — were preparing to board the bus for the airport on Dec. 29 when word came down that the Texas Bowl scheduled for New Year’s Eve had been canceled due to a COVID outbreak among TCU players.

Despite that disappointment, and the

reality of playing what some considered the toughest-ever college football schedule coming off the worst run in program history, hope was restored on the Hill.

The Hogs won three games against an all-SEC slate, breaking a long conferencegame losing streak in the process and re-establishing Arkansas football as something other than an afterthought.

And they did so because of Pittman.

Recognized this month as one of AMP’s 2021 Influencers of the Year, Pittman displayed the hallmarks of great leadership in his first season as head Hog, something that had been sorely missing.

To recap, he surrounded himself with a great staff and gave it the autonomy to do its job; believed in the players he inherited, players many so-called experts had written off as not good enough; motivated his players to be better; never passed the buck; and perhaps most importantly, truly wanted to be here. In other words, Pittman led.

Substitute players for employees and ask, can every business leader say the same? Inside, we’re proud to recognize 25 of those kinds of Arkansas leaders.

See EDITOR’S LETTER, page 67

By Heather Baker

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INFLUENCERS KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR

ur 2021 Influencers of the Year list is a great way to kick off the new year. We recognize many Arkansas business leaders through lists in AMP, but this one is extra special.

Nominated by AMP readers and chosen by members of our advisory board (members of last year’s inaugural class of Influencers), these Arkansas professionals are leading by example.

This year’s impressive class includes: Razorback head football coach Sam Pittman; George Makris, chairman and CEO of Simmons First National Corp.; El Dorado Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer; data pioneer Charles Morgan of First Orion; UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson; and our January cover subject, Dr. Jose Romero.

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These honorees represent just a sample of the impressive leadership displayed in the 2021 class.

Also inside, we’re happy to provide a look at the efforts of the Arkansas Department of Commerce and Arkansas Economic Development Commission to help state businesses survive the economic impact of the pandemic. Plus, we consider what Arkansas tourism will look like this year, and we talk to local tax experts about what to expect in the new environment of 2021.

Thank you for reading. Hope you had a great Christmas and a happy New Year. Send me story ideas at HBaker@ ARMoneyandPolitics.com.

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JA N UA RY 2021

VIEWPOINT

GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

BY DAVID MOODY

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David Moody is a Central Arkansas startup founder/mentor and a former NASA engineer.

f you’ve ever experienced a wilderness adventure or spent time on the open water and felt uneasy about exactly where you were or what decision to make, you likely referred to the map, got your compass, looked for the lighthouse or back-tracked to look for landmarks along the path in order to get your bearings.

The map, compass, lighthouse and landmarks are all symbols of what guiding principles do for us... They bring us back to our base, our foundation, our launch point, and they provide a filter or a checklist to help us make sense of the information we have in order to make the best decision. It is routine for many of us to use criteria to help us make decisions.

The problem is that we tend to change the criteria. In certain situations, some criteria are relaxed or ignored. Our own emotion, human nature and lack of discipline result in critical decisions being made without a full vetting of the very principles that, at some point, we thought were so important that we establish them as the basis on which we would make critical decisions.

It has also been my experience that some business owners and senior executives have one set of criteria for business decisions and another for decisions in their personal life. They may treat family, friends and customers with great respect and kindness and be a tyrant to their employees, vendors and competitors. Having two sets of guidelines for behavior and decision-making, or rules that change to support the desired outcome, can create conflict in families, companies and in the hearts and minds of leaders.

Over the years, I have developed some guiding principles that I use in business

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and in life to help me make good decisions. While I may have more specific criteria for a particular decision, my guiding principles are pretty basic, fundamental and not specific to any business deal or life decision. I committed to these principles, and their order of priority, after a great deal of discernment and soulsearching.

First, I believe I must have a strong Faith, and the decisions I make must be consistent with my spiritual beliefs. I’ve been a Christian all my life, a Catholic for nearly 40 years, and I believe one must have a strong belief in a higher power or calling. I happen to believe that if I’m not serving some purpose much bigger than me, I’m likely to be self-centered.

Second, I believe one must stay physically and mentally fit and live a healthy lifestyle. Related to my Christian beliefs, I believe my body is a temple provided to me by God, and I have an obligation to take care of that gift. Again, my principles are in order of priority, and many people question how can I put Faith and Fitness before family? Simple. If my spiritual, mental and physical health aren’t strong, I cannot properly serve and protect my family.

Third, I must consider how every major decision will impact my Family. My wife and children are a gift from God, and it is my responsibility to serve them, protect them and ensure that their faith and wellness are intact. I firmly believe that God put Gwen, my wife of nearly four decades, in my path. My relationship with her is second only to my relationship with God. Finances may seem odd as a guiding principle to some folks. For me, financial strength is necessary to support my fam-

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ily, church, charitable work and community. An absence of financial strength may put other guiding principles at risk. This one is particularly challenging for me because I’m involved in a number of entrepreneurial activities that, by their very nature, present financial risk. That risk has to be offset and kept in balance.

Speaking of balance, finally, as important as each of the previous principles may be, they must all be kept in reasonable Balance over time.

If one aspect of my life, earning a living for instance (finances), dominates all the others for an extended period, I put my faith, family and/or fitness at risk. Our lives are almost always out of balance at any particular point in time. Sometimes variables over which we have no control cause imbalances such as work projects that spill over into the evenings or weekends. The key is to be sensitive to the potential for an imbalance and proactively deal with it by being intentional and restoring balance as soon as possible.

Although I fail at times, I attempt to apply these principles at home, in my business ventures, and in all other aspects of my life. If you don’t already have a set of guiding principles, I recommend to business leaders, especially young entrepreneurs, that they make an effort to develop them. Give it some time and thought. Write them down. Look at them daily. If you don’t, you could find yourself in the wilderness of life or business without a map, a compass or landmarks.

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VIEWPOINT

HAVE A GOOD LIFE,

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AND SEE YOU MONDAY

love music. If not otherwise occupied, my ears demand a cacophony of tunes. Anything will work. From “The Hag” to Elvis, Harry Styles to Chet Baker, it really is hard to find something uninteresting to me. Lately though, my tuner remains set to the soothing and familiar refrains of Jimmy Buffett. Many who know me will roll their eyes when reading this because it is not beyond my norm to play a little island funk at Christmastime.

One particular tune, “Come Monday,” has been stuck in my head. In case you don’t know, the first line goes like this, “Heading out to San Francisco, for the Labor Day weekend show. I’ve got my Hushpuppies on. Guess I never was meant for glitter rock ’n roll.”

First of all, so few of us have headed out to San Francisco lately it makes me wistful to imagine the trip. I’d be all snug as a bug in the center seat with a jerk in front of me fully reclined, while consuming stale pretzels and diet soda. The majesty and splendor of travel renewed. This is something I want badly.

Secondly, can you imagine a Labor Day weekend show? People on blankets, the faint smells from the hippie pit wafting through the air, an entertainer you vaguely recognize jamming on stage and maybe even a torrential downpour to boot. This is the normalcy we deserve.

The most important concept is the mythical Monday when, “it’ll be all right.”

Behold… hope. Clearly, the song’s Monday is both literal and figurative. And we are all looking forward to the figurative Monday which follows the seventh acre of hell year 2020 was. I find solace and joy in this promise of a day when the troubles and stress of our lives abate. Ol’ Jimmy wrote this song more than 40 years ago,

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BY STAN ZYLOWSKI

and it amazes me he knew this day would come and we would all need it. Genius, really.

Ok, Stan, we get it. You like the song and it delivers a hopeful message. What’s the point?

Too often our teammates, friends and loved ones are losing perspective and getting to dark places these days. So, the point is, we all need to seek the shelter of what we love when the world around us is so tumultuous. Doing so positions us for success in the big and small aspects of life. We have to look out for ourselves and each other more than ever.

“As we continue to live through a global pandemic, we need movement on mental health, perhaps more than we have ever needed it before”, said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. "We need to move for our own mental health, the mental health of our families, friends and colleagues.”

Further, WHO is leading the #MoveforMentalHealth challenge and asking people around the world to post videos showing what they do in support of their mental well-being whether it be dancing, walking, doing yoga, cooking, painting or something else entirely. This last category would presumptively include listening to Buffett and grilling on the porch.

If you are not compelled by any of this, and maybe think WHO is packed with quacks, let me offer you a compelling and practical argument for mental health. According to the for-profit job search firm, Indeed.com, promoting mental health in the workplace and supporting employees who have mental health issues or concerns is important because they can have a significant impact on an employee’s job satisfaction and work performance:

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• 61 percent of workers said their mental health affected their pro- ductivity.

• 37 percent of workers said their work environment contributed to the mental health symptoms they experienced.

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Mental health disorders and sub- stance abuse issues cost U.S. em- ployers between $79 billion and $105 billion a year in indirect costs.

If you still aren’t convinced of the power of keeping yourself and those who matter to you mentally balanced, let me make one parting shot at delivering wisdom. This time we will sup from the lyrics of “He Went to Paris,” a ditty which chronicles the life of a soldier who met with many tragedies and wound up in the Florida Keys fishing the pilings.

Through all his days, he kept perspective, finally telling Jimmy, “Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I had a good life all the way.” If we are lucky, work hard on ourselves and love one another, we will all be able to say the same someday.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

See you Monday. A

Stan Zylowski is cofounder and CEO at Movista, a Bentonville tech firm that provides mobile-first retail execution and the workforce management platform, ONE.

JA N UA RY 2021

DISCOVERY ECONOMICS

UNLOCKING THE HUMAN GENOME:

DR. DAVID USSERY, UAMS

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ince the human genome was first mapped in in the 1980s, science has unlocked many mysteries of the human body. In that time, the technology surrounding the project has evolved so that the daily amount of data being produced is doubling every seven months. By the year 2030, genomics will likely be generating zetabytes (1021 bytes) of data every year.

Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Academy member Dr. David Ussery, a professor of bioinformatics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, is using this data to fight diseases, including COVID-19.

AMP: Using broad strokes, tell us about the nature of your research.

Dr. Ussery: My research centers around genome sequences. In the context of UAMS, we’re interested in developing high-throughput methods for sequencing and high-throughput methods for computational analysis of microbial genomes, in terms of human health, as well as human genomes and cancer and other diseases.

AMP: To a finer point, your research is focused on bioinformatic analysis of bacterial genomes. How does this work interact with the COVID-19 pandemic?

Dr. Ussery: There is a lot that can be learned from genome sequences, whether they are from viruses, bacteria or humans. For example, currently in the news is a new ‘strain’ of SARSCoV-2 that is supposedly much more virulent.

Actually, from looking at the genome sequences of lots of coronavirus strains, what we can see is

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that this new strain is not really that different, and most likely just a particular strain that was part of a super-spreader event. It’s not that the virus is suddenly more easily spread, but rather that by chance this particular variant was one that has infected lots of people. Sometimes, correlation is not the same as causation.

In terms of the relationship between my work with bacterial genomics and the COVID-19 pandemic, actually, I work with microbial genomics, which includes viral genomes as well as bacterial genomes. In the past two years (2019 and 2020), I have published several papers that were only about viruses, including one about the mumps virus outbreak based in Springdale.

In general, we are interested in understanding microbial ecosystems which include viruses, bacteria and fungi.

AMP: Tell us about the Arkansas Center for Genomic and Ecological Medicine (ArC-GEM).

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Dr. Ussery: The idea behind ArC-GEM is pretty simple — use genome sequences as the best unique identifier of an organism to track disease outbreaks. Basically, a pathogen from a clinical isolate can be sequenced, and from that, the doctor can quickly know several important things. What is it? How do I treat it? Is this part of an outbreak that we should be monitoring?

For example, we have sequenced about 40 mumps genomes from the outbreak in Springdale and used this to compare the strain there to other outbreaks. As a result of this, we could map where the Springdale strain came from (Iowa) and other places where it went (Washington state). In a sense, the SARS-CoV-2 genome is just another genome among many that we want to monitor and track in terms of genomic epidemiology. We can also use similar methods that we’re using to look for COVID-19 to look for other viral (and microbial) genomes in wastewater, and to be better able to detect and track outbreaks.

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AMP: The bacteria inside your gut can directly influence a number of fascinating functions in the body. What advances in medicine can your work help facilitate?

Dr. Ussery: There are many diseases that can be caused or exacerbated by the microbial community in different parts of the body. In your gut, there are some bacteria that can affect moods, that can influence the immune response (both good and bad), can affect cardiovascular health and even cause (or help prevent) cancer. This means that understanding the microbial community or ecosystem is very important for better treatments of patients.

AMP: What could you do with, say, “astronomical” levels of funding? And what difference would that make for Arkansas?

Dr. Ussery: This is actually a great question.

There was a paper a few years ago — “Big Data: Astronomical or Genomical?” — revealing that with the continuing decline in the cost of sequencing, genome sequences are now dominating big data. Currently, about 1 petabyte (1015 bytes) of new sequences are deposited to public databases every two weeks. This is increasing rapidly, and soon we will have zetabytes (1021 bytes) of new genome sequences to work with every year.

But we will need computational infrastructure to deal with this “astronomical” amount of data. So, I’d invest heavily in building up high-throughput computational infrastructure, as well as novel methods that will scale to massive amounts of genomic data. In the NSF’s $24 million DART proposal, which was to build up computational infrastructure throughout the state of Arkansas, there are four areas of industry engagement in the first figure: transportation; retail and ecommerce; marketing and behavior; and genomics. I think that there’s a real need for investing both in the hardware as well

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Dr. David Ussery, UAMS

as investing in people to maintain and run the big computers.

AMP: What opportunities do you see for converting your research to jobs?

The UAMS College of Medicine recently calculated its return on investment on a series of internal grants it has funded. It found that roughly for every dollar invested, there was about $15 in grant funding received. So, this is a good investment, in my opinion!

Dr. Ussery: Currently, there’s an NIH grant about looking for COVID-19 in Arkansas wastewater, and I think this is something that is really needed. It would be great if we could monitor a whole community on a daily basis, and drill down to specific geographic locations and find hot spots for infection. Potentially, there are new jobs for people to use genome sequences as epidemiology.

AMP: What do you want the Arkansas business community and public officials to know about your research and how it’s making a difference?

Dr. Ussery: My research is about genomics and big data. This area is now dominating the total amount of data being produced, and there’s a real need for developing high-throughput computational methods for dealing with this. We are developing methods for rapid detection and monitoring of diseases, based on genomic sequences. This includes detecting COVID-19 levels in wastewater, as well as sequencing SARSCoV-2 genomes from Arkansas clinical isolates.

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For example, poultry industries could use genome sequencing to quickly identify and isolate pathogenic strains of viruses or bacteria, preventing costly recalls. All of my students have had the luxury of choosing which job that they want — that is, there are more jobs than people in my field.

The ARA Academy of Scholars and Fellow is a community of strategic research leaders that strives to maximize the value of discovery and progress in the state. Learn more at ARAlliance.org.

JA N UA RY 2021

DIGEST

‘ENTREPRENEURS in CPA BODIES’ New Arkansas firm adopting novel approach

BY CARL KOZLOWSKI

“WE SEE OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPAND INTO OTHER AREAS LEVERAGING THE TALENTS AMONG THE FIRMS AND THE SYNERGIES THAT WILL BE CREATED AS WE COME TOGETHER AS ONE.”

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rkansans seeking financial guidance have a major new option this year, as five of the state’s top certified-publicaccounting (CPA) firms are merging to form Garland & Greenwood CPAs and Advisors, PLLC. The new firm will incorporate FDV CPA and Consulting Services, PLLC, in Bentonville; Gasaway & Company, CPAs, and Mcllroy.Keen.Goodman, LLP, in Little Rock; Prince & Tuohey, CPA, in Hot Springs; and Robert G Schichtl II, CPA, in Conway. The new firm will maintain offices in each city.

The merger became official on Jan. 1, with Jake Froemsdorf and Rocky Goodman serving as the firm’s managing partners. The firm’s name Garland & Greenwood was derived from the locations where the group had their initial meetings to discuss the merger: Garland County, Ark., and Greenwood, Miss.

According to Goodman, combining the ex-

From left to right: Mike Tuohey, Jake Froemsdorf, John Brock, Greg Schichtl, Rocky Goodman, Jaye Gasaway

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pertise of each firm’s specialties will provide greater service across the board for their clients.

“We came together with a desire to engage with other professionals in Arkansas and to build a firm that offers our clients services which we may not have offered separately,” Goodman said. “Our shared visions of serving our existing clients while taking advantage of other opportunities attracted us to one another as well.

“We see opportunities to expand into other areas leveraging the talents among the firms and the synergies that will be created as we come together as one. The locations of the firm represent areas in

which we see growth opportunities and are also the areas in the state that we love and in which we want to make a difference. The six of us also have an entrepreneurial spirit, and we often say that we are entrepreneurs in CPAs’ bodies.”

Goodman also noted that the merger is reflective of a broader trend in the financial services industry, rooted in the expected retirement of baby boomers over the next five to 10 years.

“Our profession is going to be impacted greatly, as many firms in Arkansas have one or two partners, and a great percentage of those partners are in their 50s and 60s,” Goodman said. “Small firms

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have a more difficult time generating a succession plan, and merging with other firms is a good way for them to transition their clients to capable hands as they begin to slow down.

“Our firm will be active in this area, and we believe that we can help many of these smaller firms with a succession plan and give them some peace of mind about what their future holds. I like to joke that I want our CPA firm to be one where other CPAs ‘go out to pasture.’ The value of having the more mature generation assist us in our practice is beyond measure.”

DIGEST

NEWSMAKERS

By AMP Staff

CARVANA OPENS $40M DISTRIBUTION CENTER IN WEST MEMPHIS

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arvana opened its new vehicle inspection and distribution center in West Memphis on Jan. 5. The online car buying-and-financing platform announced its plans to build the center in September 2019. The project represents a $40 million investment in West Memphis.

The West Memphis facility will be used to “inspect, recondition, photograph and store inventory,” according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

It will feature a vaulted photo studio with 360-degree photo technology, 3D photo vision and augmented reality capabilities.

Arkansas Department of Commerce Secretary Mike Preston said in a statement, “Companies in Arkansas are his-

HYTROL PLANNING $20M PLANT IN FORT SMITH

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ytrol, a material-handling systems firm based in Jonesboro, announced plans to invest $20 million in a Fort Smith manufacturing facility.

The plant will be located at an existing 300,000-square-foot facility on Jenny Lind Road.

The expansion is projected to create 250 new jobs within five years. Currently, Hytrol employs roughly 1,200 at its two Jonesboro facilities.

Hytrol President David Peacock noted the firm’s growth from 28 to more than 1,200 employees. “Hytrol has been in Jonesboro, Arkansas, since 1962,” he said. “When it came time to expand with an additional production facility, it was an easy decision to stay in Arkansas. The workforce in Arkansas is second to none; the business climate supports our growth; and our values of faith, family, gratitude, empathy, commitment and community align perfectly with Arkansas.”

This new operation will increase Hytrol’s production space to approximately 1 million square feet. The company will lease the Fort Smith facility from Spartan Logistics.

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torically renowned for their innovation and entrepreneurship. With its technologically innovative business model, I’m confident that Carvana will be a great fit for Arkansas’ business community, and I am excited to celebrate the opening of its new inspection center in West Memphis.”

The facility is expected to create more than 400 jobs, including inventory associates, automotive technicians and autobody and paint technicians.

Carvana was founded in 2012 in Tempe, Ariz. Since its founding, it has steadily grown, going public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017. In December, the company added next-day vehicle delivery in Little Rock and Hot Springs.

LITTLE ROCK FIRMS MERGE TO FORM LEGACY CAPITAL

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wo Arkansas wealth management firms have merged to form Legacy Capital.

Legacy Capital Wealth Partners and Trent Capital Management, both independent firms, merged effective Dec. 31. Under the merger, the new Registered Investment Advisory firm will hold more than $525 million in assets in management and in-force life insurance of more than $2.5 billion.

Legacy Capital President Matt Jones called the merger a significant, positive event for the firm’s clients. “With this merger and the integration of David Trent and the great team that he has built, I believe we have created an organization that will provide the highest level of service and advice to the affluent and ultra-affluent in our state and region.”

The firm will include an in-house financial and estate planning team, consisting of two non-practicing CPAs, two non-practicing attorneys and two CFPs, as well as an in-house life insurance and disability division with a full-time medical underwriter.

Legacy Capital Group has existed as a wealth and risk management firm since 1977. Trent Capital Management was founded by David Trent in 1996 and is an SEC Registered Investment Advisory firm.

Trent said the merger benefits clients of both firms. “Combining resources positions us to thrive and grow beyond the careers of the founders and current owners/leaders to serve our clients and families for generations to come,” he said. “We have spent many hours over the last few months with Legacy’s team and truly feel this is a big win for both of our firms’ clients as well as our existing and future advisors.”

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SPECIAL SECTION

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

2021

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conomic development has been defined as the creation of wealth from which community benefits are realized. Such benefits came fewer and further between in the pandemic year of 2020, but local and state officials worked hard to make sure Arkansas remained as vibrant a place to live and work as possible. From the Arkansas Department of Commerce and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to local chambers and

visitors’ bureaus, these economic developers are helping Arkansas business owners endure.

In this special section, we’ll hear from Arkansas Commerce Secretary Mike Preston, highlight some of the ways the state was able to help keep the economy stable and profile some of the state’s economic developers in both the public and private sectors. Plus, we’ll look at tourism in Arkansas, how it held up in 2020 and prospects for the year ahead.

A WORD FROM MIKE PRESTON At this beginning of a new year, I want to thank all of those who helped in far too many ways to mention.

I want to thank Gov. Asa Hutchinson and all the legislators who worked tirelessly to find solutions. The CARES Act steering committee, made up of a blue-ribbon panel of Arkansans, stood together to make the tough decisions on how to distribute the federal dollars received.

I want to thank Arkansans for their trust and patience as we worked with complex new ways to distribute relief and help companies of all kinds survive. And it continues. It’s not over, but we will continue to stay the course.

In service, Mike Preston Arkansas Secretary of Commerce ARM O N E YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

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PANDEMIC IMPACT LINGERS ON, BUT BIG PICTURE LOOKING BETTER ARKANSAS WORKS TO ENSURE BUSINESSES SURVIVE INTO 2021

2020 was a difficult year to be many things, government officials among them. The pandemic presented unique challenges for leaders at the local, state and national levels, and Arkansas was no exception.

Before COVID-19 set in, the Arkansas economy was continuing to expand.

Coming out of February 2020, the state unemployment rate was at 3.5 percent, and the labor force entailed more Arkansans working than ever before — 1.37 million. More than 107,000 Arkansans were working in February than were doing so in January of 2015, according to the Arkansas Economic Development JAN UA RY 2 02 1

Commission.

Fast forward to November, and the state’s jobless rate had risen to 6.2 percent. But the rate had fallen from 7.3 percent in September and from the state’s 2020 high of 10.8 percent in April. Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate was 6.7 percent for December, down from 7.9 percent in September. The big picture closed looking better in 2020, but the pandemic’s impact lingers on.

To combat that impact, the state and even some private organizations funded programs to help keep small businesses open. Small businesses represent 99.3 percent of all businesses in the state and 16

employ just under half a million, according to AEDC. The state’s initial COVID response included $10 million in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to 27 rural hospitals employing 7,899 Arkansans. The grants, which ranged from $250,000 to $500,000, were awarded to provide economic assistance and public health services in the form of operational costs, equipment and supplies.

The state’s $9 million Quick Action Bridge Loan Program was designed to help small businesses across all industries with two to 50 employees bridge the gap until federal Paycheck ProtecARM ON E YA N D P OL ITIC S.COM

tion Program (PPP) loans could become available. Last year, it benefited 483 small businesses representing 6,610 Arkansas jobs.

The AEDC Ready for Business Grant Program leveraged $1.25 billion in CARES Act funds to assist Arkansas business owners with expenses related to reopening or resuming operations.

Arkansas Commerce Secretary Mike Preston said the program was intended to help small businesses struggling with social distancing and PPE requirements that strain already thin margins.

“Business owners lacked the working capital to restock and advertise,” he said.

“We wanted to help create a sense of confidence for employees and customers that it was OK to return to business.”

Grant amounts were based on the number of employees an organization had as of March 1, 2020, and grant recipients could receive $1,000 per employee up to a maximum award of $100,000.

Eligible expenditures under the program include: • PPE and no-contact thermometers for employees and customers • No-contact Point of Sale (POS) payment equipment • Supplies and disinfectants to be used for deep cleanings • Hiring a third party to perform periodic deep cleaning services • Hand sanitizer stations • Restocking of necessary supplies/ raw materials • Expenses associated with recommended health and safety guidelines • Signage, marketing and other onetime expenses associated with reopening or resuming normal operations.

More than 11,000 businesses in all 75 counties received grants totaling $128.8 million benefiting 225,000 jobs. Roughly 94 percent of grant recipients had less than 50 employees, 33 percent were women-owned and 25 percent minorityowned.

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LOANS TO DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY PROVIDERS •$ 7.8 million forgivable loan program •A vailable to large providers of services to the developmentally disabled such as Goodwill and Easter Seals not eligible for assistance through other federal programs •L oans forgiven using same criteria as PPP • Benefited 3,921 Arkansas jobs.

PUBLIC SERVICES, PUBLIC FACILITIES AND MICROENTERPRISE ASSISTANCE TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS • Provides $14.6 million in CDBG-CV assistance to non-entitlement local governments • Examples of permitted uses for these funds include public services and public facilities, and direct assistance to microbusinesses • Funds must be used for unmet needs, which directly prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic • Competitive Applications due March 31st, 2021.

RENTAL ASSISTANCE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

• $10 million allocated — $5.76M from CDBG-CV and $4.24M from CARES Act •A vailable to households whose income is no more than 80 percent of area median income • Benefit amount of up to 2.5 months rent (up to HUD fair market rents) • Funds distributed through 15 community action agencies • Consents secured from landlord to waive late fees and not pursue eviction.

To help ensure the Arkansas workforce made it to 2021, the state paid or administered billions in unemployment benefits. Through Nov. 20, those totals were: • Regular benefits (Regular Unemployment Insurance) — $398.1 million • TRA benefits (Trade Readjustment Allowance) — $513,000 • FPUC benefits (Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation) — $1.65 billion • PUA benefits (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) — $313.6 million • PEUC benefits (Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation) — $84.6 million • EB benefits (Extended Benefits) — $7.8 million • LWA benefits (Lost Wages Assistance) — $137 million.

Initial claims for regular unemployment insurance peaked the week of April 4 at 62,086, but by Dec. 12 had fallen to 3,395.

ARKANSAS RURAL CONNECT BROADBAND PROGRAM

FOOD ASSISTANCE • $4.7 million in CDBG-CV to be awarded in early 2021 • Awards coordinated through Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance

In 2020, the Arkansas Rural Connect (ARC) broadband program distributed millions to rural Arkansas to help establish high-speed broadband services. The program is administered through the Arkansas Department of Commerce Broadband Office. Preston said the funds deployed across the state were especially significant in 2020 as rural small businesses struggled to stay open.

Through Dec. 28, the program had awarded $86.8 million to 60 rural broadband-service providers in Arkansas — $82.3 million from the federal CARES Act and $4.5 million in state funds.

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THE PATH TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ARKANSAS NATIVE KATHERINE HOLMSTROM MAKING AN IMPACT FOR STATE THROUGH AEDC

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BY TYLER HALE

itting in a boardroom in the offices of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, overlooking the Arkansas River, Katherine Holmstrom makes the case for choosing Arkansas as your business home on a daily basis.

Even when talking about herself, Holmstrom shows how she has become one of the leading economic developers in the state with her passionate advocacy of the state’s opportunities.

With self-deprecating humor and charming honesty, Holmstrom can discuss the benefits of investing in Arkansas while talking about herself and her rising career.

Since joining AEDC in 20211, Holmstrom has scaled the ranks, moving from the agency’s community development division to becoming a project manager and then senior project manager, working to recruit new businesses and helping to expand existing ones in Arkansas. These projects have resulted in millions of dollars invested in the state, as well as new infrastructure and new jobs.

It’s a career path that looks as planned and thought-out as any of the projects she has helmed during her time at AEDC. But she did not give any thought to economic development as a career path — not even being aware of the field when she was a child. “I don’t really think that anybody wants to grow up to be an economic developer,” Holmstrom jokes.

Growing up in DeWitt, Holmstrom had early experience with small business, working on her family’s agricultural aviation business when she was a teenager. Working at the family flying service provided an important lesson in the value, and necessity, of small businesses in Arkansas. “I think I really learned a lot about work and interaction with people, and got a really great work ethic from working with my grandpa and my dad, alongside my brother,” she said.

Holmstrom attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, receiving a journalism degree with an emphasis in public relations and a minor in agriculture business. It was her capstone project that set the course for her professional life, though. She began interning for Congressman Marion Berry on his 2006 reelection campaign, learning the ropes of campaign work. After college, she received a full-time offer from Berry, becoming a community development liaison and Berry’s woman-on-the-ground in Arkansas.

She began traveling across the First Congressional District JAN UA RY 2 02 1

on behalf of Berry, meeting with elected officials, chambers of commerce and constituents. Before she knew it, Holmstrom had been bitten by the public service bug.

When a community development role opened up at AEDC, Holmstrom grabbed the opportunity and ran with it, seeing it as an extension of her work with Berry’s office. She was later approached by AEDC Business Development Division Director Bentley Story to take on a project manager role.

“I have a unique perspective because I have worked on these projects. I understand that it takes an entire team to make a project happen. It takes the economic developer, it takes the chamber, and it takes a great community,” she said. “The importance of place-making is still very strong. Companies want to grow where they feel like they’re going to be valued, and they want to be part of a great community. I understand that all the pieces of the puzzle must exist to make a successful project happen.”

That’s where she’s been for going on 10 years, and her goal has remained fundamentally the same ever since. “Overall, my mission is to sell Arkansas as a great place to do business, provide quality jobs and provide quality opportunities for Arkansas,” she said.

Fulfilling that huge mission is not always a cakewalk, though Holmstrom handles the pressure gracefully. Every day is different in the challenges that economic development brings, which could mean working with an existing Arkansas company to come up with ways to expand its business, writing project proposals or recruiting out-of-state companies to Arkansas.

Of course, there’s always the unique — even bizarre — scenarios that pop up when trying to entice companies. That’s why Holmstrom’s number one tip for economic developers is to stay adaptable. Holmstrom has made dinner reservations for prospective clients and even once had to make dinner plans for a business client and his wife when the visit fell over Valentine’s Day weekend.

“You may wake up one day thinking that you are going to have all these meetings and then they want to go toward the downtown area or go tour the local school district. You just have to make that happen, and you have to be flexible,” she said. “It’s a lot of different things, but again, it never gets boring. It all involves making the business case for Arkansas, trying to make the prospect or the company comfortable and 18

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providing them all the tools that they need in order to make that decision to choose Arkansas.”

Holmstrom counts several projects from 2020 as some of the biggest successes in her career. She singles out an expansion for Roach Manufacturing Corporation in Caraway, which will be building a new 25,000-squarefoot addition to its existing conveyor manufacturing plant and creating 30 new jobs over two years, tripling its workforce.

“Thirty jobs in Caraway is always a huge deal. And they’re good jobs. We see sometimes where people leave rural communities for better opportunities in bigger cities. These people have a great work ethic, and I think the Roach family saw that, and they wanted to invest there and continue to grow,” she said.

Another major project that Holmstrom helped shepherd was a new manufacturing facility in Ash Flat from Emerson, a St. Louis-based technology and engineering company. Emerson will be investing $35 million in the Ash Flat facility, which will manufacture products for its mechanical, electrical and plumbing divisions. The project is expected to create 245 new jobs over four years.

When Emerson was looking to establish an Arkansas presence, Ash Flat was not on its radar. However, Holmstrom and the AEDC team brought it to their attention and persisted, taking company representatives on a site visit, ultimately impressing the company enough for it to take the plunge in rural Sharp County.

Bentley Story, director of business development for AEDC, said Holmstrom has had a significant impact on the state and Arkansans. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with Katherine since 2011 when she started at AEDC,” he said. “Katherine is genuinely committed to improving the lives of Arkansans. Her work ethic, responsiveness and determination when working a project have led to the creation of thousands of jobs for our state. We are fortunate to have someone as dedicated as Katherine. Arkansas is definitely a better place because of her work.”

Holmstrom has found ways to expand that impact, working with the Arkansas Economic Developers and Chamber Executives (AEDCE) , an association that represents both professional and volunteer economic developers and chamber executives in the state. In 2020, she served as president of the organization, working to guide it through an unprecedented public health crisis.

While the annual AEDCE meeting was canceled, the orgaARM O N E YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

nization worked to provide value for its members throughout the year. AEDCE increased its educational offerings, providing a slate of virtual seminars and other programming.

While 2020 was a challenging year all around, no matter your industry, Arkansas is ending on a “high note” for economic development, according to Holmstrom. She said the state has acquitted itself well in maintaining a competitive business climate by attending to industry and business needs and keeping open to the greatest extent possible.

“We tried to balance staying open and continuing business, but also taking care of people’s personal safety and trying to find the balance. I think we did that and think we did a really good job of that,” she said. “We’ve heard from existing employers that have thanked us for keeping open and how much that means to them and how it’s really helped, not only their bottom line, but it’s helped their employees as well.”

Looking ahead, the future continues to be cloudy, although new vaccines have provided bursts of sunlight at the end of a gloomy year. But for Holmstrom, 2021 is shaping up to be a banner year for Arkansas and business.

“We have a lot of great announcements in the pipeline for the start of 2021, and I’m excited about it,” she said. “I think it’s going to turn out pretty well. A lot of that is thanks to the work ethic of our state, of these employees who are willing to go to work and work hard and make these companies that are doing business here successful.”

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MEET THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS Economic developers across the state work behind the scenes to assist existing businesses, attract new ones and grow their communities. Here are snapshots of nine economic developers, like Katherine Holmstrom of AEDC, who work to make Arkansas a better place to live and work.

STEVE ARRISON, Visit Hot Springs

Steve Arrison likes to quote his friend, Bill Giest, who told him that tourism is the first date for economic development. As CEO of Visit Hot Springs, Arrison takes his friend’s words to heart.

“Most often that first experience — that first date — with a community comes from a tourism visit.”

Arrison believes quality of life and good infrastructure are a byproduct of a good tourism economy and attractive to economic-development prospects. He cites the 2018 opening of the Northwoods Trails system, which added more than 26 miles of mountain biking and hiking trails, and the Majestic Park baseball complex under construction on one of Major League Baseball’s first spring training sites.

“Babe Ruth spent his first spring training at this location with the Boston Red Sox. This will open up the sports tourism market for Hot Springs and return youth baseball to our community.”

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GRAYCEN BIGGER, Northeast Arkansas Intermodal Facilities Authority

As executive director of the Northeast Arkansas Regional Intermodal Authority, Graycen Biggers’ duties include supporting and generating regional development efforts between Randolph, Lawrence, Sharp and Clay Counties. Biggers recruits new industry to the area as well as helps expand existing industries. One example includes the $35 million Emerson project, which brought 248 new jobs to Sharp County. Bigger also advocates for state and federal resources that boost workforce training and economic development in the region. In 2020, the Authority helped secure more than $14 million for workforce, site development and broadband expansion.

In addition, she manages regional marketing efforts, aids workforce development partners in creating industry-driven workforce programs such as CDL and gunsmithing, as well as strengthening the local talent pipeline.

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STEVE COX, Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce

Some might consider economic development in a bustling region like Northwest Arkansas to be an easy sell. And while it is, promoting a region and guiding its growth requires hard work and dedication. As senior vice president for economic development at the RogersLowell Area Chamber, Steve Cox brings just that.

The state’s fifth-largest city with almost 69,000 residents, Rogers is an integral part of a thriving NWA region that continues to grow and attract national attention, thanks in part to Cox and his colleagues at the chamber. More than $60 million in private investment is in development in Rogers and Lowell alone. Rogers’ population has almost doubled since 2000, and its growth rate from 2010-2019 remains high at almost 23 percent. The metro population, meanwhile, sits at roughly 560,000. Last year, the Heartland Forward ranked NWA as the 21st most dynamic metropolitan area in the nation.

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JILL DABBS, Downtown Springdale Alliance

The former mayor of Bryant and small business owner in Central Arkansas, Jill Dabbs made the move northwest in January 2019 to lead the Downtown Springdale Alliance.

Downtown Springdale is a nonprofit formed in 2011 to promote a vibrant downtown. Currently, it is developing and promoting the Downtown Springdale Arts District to help enhance the city’s identity.

Since its creation, new ventures have located downtown, including retail, a film production studio, a school and restaurants. Dabbs’ vision is for the district is to serve the needs of the neighborhood while attracting artists and creatives to the area. Downtown Springdale also plans to partner with the Urban Land Institute of Northwest Arkansas among others to develop a housing strategy.

“Downtown Springdale has always had the makings of a perfect intersection for the arts, the outdoors, housing and culinary experiences,” Dabbs said. “We’re now really starting to see it take shape, and it couldn’t be happening at a more exciting time.”

Dabbs is an Arkansas native and earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

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MALLORY DARBY, West Memphis Office of Economic Development

As senior project manager for the West Memphis Office of Economic Development, Mallory Darby is responsible for industrial and commercial recruitment and development and all related marketing.

Since 2016, Darby has been responsible for the successful recruitment of projects resulting in more than 1,500 jobs created and $350 million in capital investment into the city. These include industrial, retail, restaurant, hospitality and tourism development projects. She was behind the selection in 2018 of West Memphis as an 1,800-acre Entergy Select-certified mega site, the largest of its kind in Arkansas. The city and Entergy Arkansas announced plans in October to promote the Interstate 40 site, and a new website was launched to chronicle documentation related to the site’s readiness. And on Jan. 5, the city cut the ribbon on a new distribution center for Carvana, the online car platform. The project represents a $40 million investment in West Memphis.

“Success in economic development does not come from one person working hard, it takes a team of passionate leaders who are willing to work together,” she said.

A graduate of Mississippi State, Darby came to West Memphis after serving as director of research and development with the Golden Triangle LINK in Columbus, Miss. She serves on the local chamber board and as first vice president on the Arkansas Economic Developers & Chamber Executives (AEDCE) board.

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MAT FAULKNER, Think Idea Studio, Searcy

Mat Faulkner is not a public official, nor is he a Searcy native. But the Harding University graduate, who grew up in Daytona Beach, Fla., is an economic developer and a true voice for his adopted hometown.

Faulkner is president of his own small business, Think Idea Studio, and also serves on the board of the Searcy Regional Economic Development Corporation, chairs the Searcy Regional Chamber Small Business Committee, directs the Think ART Project, co-founded Searcy Beats & Eats Events and serves on the Searcy Beautification and Holiday of Lights committees. In addition, Faulkner is past board president of Jacob's Place Homeless Mission, and his business was named the 2017 Searcy Chamber Business of the Year. If that’s not enough, Faulkner and Think Idea Studio appeared on season four of Small Business Revolution, filmed in Searcy after Faulkner nominated the city to serve as a host city for the online show. TV personalities and hosts Ty Pennington and Amanda Brinkman filmed in Searcy for several months.

“Searcy has experienced tremendous positive momentum these last few years.

Although it may be difficult to attribute this upswing to one specific catalyst, there are some definite key initiatives that have helped create a snowball effect,” Faulkner said.

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BETHANY HILDEBRAND, Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce

Bethany Hildebrand is the CEO for the Stuttgart Chamber, a 300-member organization dedicated to community and economic development. She began her career with the Chamber in April of 2010 as the director of programs. In 2014, she was promoted to CEO. As such, Hildebrand works on community and economic development with the Stuttgart Industrial Development Corporation and the City of Stuttgart.

Her job responsibilities include providing strategic leadership and vision for the chamber, as well as facilitating community and economic growth in the city and supporting an environment for new and current businesses to thrive.

The chamber’s new websites have played an important role in promoting Stuttgart to out-of-town visitors and helping cement its reputation as the duck hunting capital of the world. The chamber also works with Stuttgart Unlimited, an organization of business and professional people working to enhance the economic and industrial growth of our area.

Hildebrand is a 2018 graduate of the Institute for Organization Management, IOM, a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. She has also served on the board of directors for the Arkansas Economic Developers and Chamber Executives (AEDCE), the professional association of economic developers in the state.

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BRAD LACY, Conway Area Chamber of Commerce

As president and CEO of the Conway Area Chamber, Brad Lacy’s job is to help grow local businesses and attract new ones. Lacy and other local officials have been successful. The city has grown to become the sixth largest in the state with just under 68,000 residents, according to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Its population has increased by almost 25,000 since the year 2000 alone.

The Conway Chamber has more than 1,300 member businesses, and its partnership with the Conway Development Corporation resulted in an economic development program that’s been responsible for almost 2,000 new jobs since 2016. This partnership also launched Conway2025, a five-year strategic plan to guide future growth that has already seen the development of Rogers Plaza downtown, redevelopment plans for Cantrell Field and highprofile transportation initiatives.

Under Lacy’s leadership, the Conway chamber was named Chamber of the Year by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives in 2013 and was runnerup for the national award in 2018.

He is a graduate of the Community Development Institute at UCA, the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Institute for Organization Management program, and he is a Certified Chamber Executive through the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

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ALLISON THOMPSON, Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County

Allison Thompson was hired in 2019 to lead the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, Pine Bluff’s chief promotion agency. She previously directed economic development efforts in the Metroplex city of Cedar Hill, Texas.

The alliance, which opened its doors on Jan. 1, 1995, is dedicated to the growth and development of Jefferson County. It was formed to unify community and economic development efforts. The Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County Port Authority fall under the auspices of the alliance.

Efforts include the traditional attraction, retention, expansion and workforce-development pillars of economic development, combined with the community building and business-support services of the chamber. More recent efforts underway include growing marketing efforts into the online and virtual world and expanding exposure on social media to reach a wider audience.

During her time in Cedar Hill, Thompson was responsible for attracting large companies to the city and helping expand local businesses. In Pine Bluff, she took over in time to see completion of the Quapaw Nation’s Saracen Casino Resort.

It opened in October with plans to employ more than 1,100 local workers once a 300-room adjacent hotel with restaurants, a spa, a conference center and a museum and cultural center are completed this year. A

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TOURISM

ARKANSAS TOURISM SURVIVING PANDEMIC PUNCH OUTDOOR RECREATION HELPS CUSHION COVID-19 BLOW

Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs

Hot Springs was on its way to a record year for visitors when the coronavirus shut things down in March of last year.

January and February numbers were up more than 17 percent from 2019 when the pandemic set in, based on the Spa City’s 3 percent hospitality tax collected on hotels and prepared food. But business as usual came to an abrupt halt on March 12, perhaps represented most symbolically in Arkansas by the cancellation of the state high school basketball championships being held at Hot Springs’ Bank OZK Arena.

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like Hot Springs, the industry adjusted and is on the rebound heading into 2021, thanks in large part to outdoor recreation representing an almost $700 million component to the state tourism industry.

And Hot Springs, nestled in the Ouachita Mountains in close proximity to several lakes, has benefited from its 2020 resurgence.

The early days of the shutdown, however, were tough on the city. Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison acknowledged that the “bottom fell out” in March once out-of-state travel was discouraged and restaurant dining was temporarily prohibited. Visitors numbers were down ARM ON E YA N D P OL ITIC S.COM

more than 50 percent in the first two months of the pandemic.

“We started our comeback in May with business slowly returning, due to the great job of our hotel and restaurant owners adapting to the new business model forced upon them by the pandemic,” Arrison said.

That comeback was rolling by the end of 2020. Tax collections were up three of the last four months heading into December, and year-to-date, the city was down “only” 12.4 percent.

“We have been very fortunate to have strong leisure business and a product in a location that people are searching for in these tough times,” Arrison said. “Our meeting business — conventions groups — on the other hand has been dismal.

Our convention center and adjoining hotels have been severely impacted and continue to see very little business and cancellations of events and meetings into May...

“The only hope for our meetings business is to get the vaccine out as quickly as possible. This is true for all the meeting and event venues in our state.”

That includes Little Rock, which normally enjoys a brisk convention and meeting business. The city’s hotel occupancy numbers for the year were down 37 percent heading into December. For downtown alone, the impact has been more severe. Occupancy rates fell 37 percent year-to-date and were down 60 percent from March through November of 2020.

Statewide, revenue from the state’s 2 percent tourism tax fell 20.4 percent through November, with a summer high of $1.65 million collected in July and $1.53 million in August, according to data from the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. For the 2021 fiscal year, monthly averages are down 58.4 percent.

Among the state’s usual tourism hot spots, only Carroll County saw an uptick in tourism tax collections in 2020. The home of Eureka Springs took in $600.3 million in tourism tax revenue, up 1.9 percent.

Elsewhere, Pulaski County’s collections totaled $1.9 billion, down 35 percent; Garland County (home to Hot Springs) collected $1.1 billion, down 22.7 percent; Benton County’s 2020 totals were $978.9 million, down a 46.7 ARM O N E YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

The lodge at Mount Magazine State Park

“We have been very fortunate to have strong leisure business.”

-Steve Arrison

percent; and Washington County saw $650 million in tourism tax revenue, down 45.1 percent.

Broken down into regions, the numbers reflect the drops in Bentonville and Fayetteville collections. The Northwest Arkansas region took in $2.2 billion in tourism tax revenue from January through September 2020, a decrease of 38.2 percent. Arkansas Tourism defines the region as Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties. The other significant decrease was felt in Little Rock and the Heart of Arkansas region (Faulkner, Lonoke, Prairie, Pulaski and Saline counties), which fell 32.3 percent to $2.4 billion.

Four of 12 regions experienced increases in collections, led by the Greers Ferry Lake/Little Red River region (Cleburne, Van Buren, White and Woodruff counties), up 17.3 percent at $385.7 million, and followed by the Ozark Gateway (Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Randolph, Sharp and Stone counties), up 13.7 percent at $323.5 million. The Ozark Mountain region (Baxter, Boone, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties) was up 13.5 percent at $800 million, and the Land of Legends region (Cleveland, Grant, Jefferson and Lincoln counties) was stable but just up at 0.5 percent at $224.8 million.

An outdoor rec resurgence is evident 25

in the state’s August tourism tax revenues, which were down just 6.3 percent.

Stacy Hurst, cabinet secretary for parks, heritage and tourism, told Arkansas Money & Politics that tourism numbers are holding up better than expected.

Bentonville has grown into an internationally recognized mountain-biking destination, which helped the city offset, if just a little, the loss of revenue from art museum visitors during the pandemic. November ridership on city trails doubled year-to-date, according to Visit Bentonville. In November 2019, Bentonville welcomed 54,578 riders to its trails.

That number swelled to 110,768 this past November. And Visit Bentonville CEO Kalene Griffith said those numbers reflect more locals — up to 36 percent of all riders in 2020.

Another outlet for Arkansans suffering from cabin fever has been state parks, where 2020 visitation estimates through November were up more than 650,000 from 6.6 million to 7.3 million, an increase of 10.3 percent.

Joe Jacobs, manager of marketing and revenue for Arkansas State Parks, said the state was forced to start estimating a daily count in 2020 because of the increase in visitors and concerns over social distancing.

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ARM O N E YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

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TOURISM

Q&A A

rkansas has always relied on tourism as a significant component to its state economy. And in 2020, like all industry did, tourism took a hit.

State officials report tourism tax collections are down more than 20 percent but remain optimistic that Arkansas tourism will rebound, thanks in part to the state’s outdoor recreation opportunities.

Meanwhile, the state’s most prominent attraction, Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, is soldiering on with expansion plans through the pandemic.

Inside, Arkansas Money & Politics speaks with Stacy Hurst, who leads the state’s tourism efforts, and Oaklawn President Louis Cella about surviving 2020 and looking ahead to a new year.

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EXEC Q&A

STACY HURST: For Tourism, 2020 Was Better Than Expected

BY MA R K CA RTE R

A

s was virtually every other industry, tourism in Arkansas was greatly impacted when the pandemic emerged onto the national scene in March. But because outdoor recreation is such a significant component to the industry in Arkansas, Natural State tourism didn’t take nearly as big a hit as expected in 2020.

Stacy Hurst, cabinet secretary for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, is optimistic for the future of tourism in Arkansas and the new avenues that may have opened up for it over the past year.

Stacy Hurst

AMP: Overall, how did Arkansas tourism weather the storm in 2020?

be not yet realized, in which the state could expand its tourism footprint?

HURST: I’d describe it as better than expected. We’re down about 25 percent, which is a stark contrast to our robust growth prior to COVID-19. Tourism in Arkansas has grown every year for the past 10 years, and we were on pace to hit record growth. Our models included a decline of as much as 60 percent, so a decline of 25 percent is better than we feared.

HURST: We’re completely optimistic about the future of Arkansas tourism. We have great partners across the state, and we’re constantly brainstorming and working to support great ideas. With Crystal Bridges, the new Momentary and the reimagined Arkansas Arts Center, we have a huge opportunity to expand our appeal as an arts destination. Cities across Arkansas are realizing the value of murals and public art. I think it’s a tourism angle that, if properly promoted, will produce increased visitation and growth.

AMP: Was the state able to maintain its outdoor recreation momentum throughout 2020, particularly in terms of biking?

HURST: Absolutely. The opportunities for outdoor recreation and simply being outside in nature have been a boon for Arkansas during COVID-19. Our Arkansas state parks, our federal lands and national parks have all seen robust visitation. Overnight opportunities including cabins and camping are in high demand.

With our new trails and with old favorites, hiking and biking have been popular.

AMP: Where are some areas, mayARM O N E YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

AMP: How did your employees adapt to the pandemic and the procedural changes it brought on?

HURST: The pandemic brought huge change to the inner workings of the tourism industry. Our Arkansas Tourism staff and direct partners adapted quickly, shifting to remote work and tweaking advertising to accommodate a “Safe Travel” message. Trade shows and travel-related conferences were canceled or moved to 29

virtual, so business as usual came to a halt. Nevertheless, our team managed to deploy an effective message that encouraged visitors and residents to enjoy our abundant outdoor resources safely.

Our travel centers closed briefly, but opened safely to visitors in May, and our team of professionals continued to promote Arkansas as an attractive and safe destination.

AMP: Are there any areas of Arkansas tourism that might see an increase in 2021?

HURST: I predict we’ll continue to see robust use of our amazing natural resources. We’re seeing increased visitation from our abutting states, especially Texas. With the lingering effects of COVID-19, we’ll continue to see visitors take advantage of our outdoor opportunities like incredible new biking and hiking trails, world-class fly fishing and backcountry aviation.

We’re fortunate to have a temperate climate in our state, and we can engage in outdoor recreation all year. Once people spend some time enjoying Arkansas, they have a favorable impression and want to come back.

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TOURISM Q&A

LOUIS CELLA: Calling Audibles on the Fly at Oaklawn

BY MA R K CA RTE R

O

aklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs was in the middle of its 117th thoroughbred racing season when the pandemic took hold last March. Oaklawn carried on, but with no fans in attendance the last two months of the season, it limped across the finish line.

The abrupt halt that resulted from COVID-19 hit Oaklawn as hard as any entertainment venue. But the 2021 season is scheduled to begin on Jan. 22 coinciding with the planned first quarter opening of Oaklawn’s multipurpose events center and luxury hotel overlooking the track. While the launch of Oaklawn’s $100 million expansion may be muted somewhat by a lingering pandemic, Oaklawn President Louis Cella is optimistic that the bounce back — whenever it comes — will be worth the wait.

Cella shared with Arkansas Money & Politics his pride in how Oaklawn employees are handling the challenges of COVID-19, the impact on expansion, the financial hit to Oaklawn coffers and more.

AMP: What are your plans regarding attendance in 2021?

CELLA: We have submitted a plan to the Department of Health. Depending on approval or changes they make, we hope to open with box seat holders, club members and reservations-only in restaurants.No general admission. This way, we can properly social distance everyone.

Box-seat holders will be spread out across reserved seats which make up the entire grandstand. When weather improves, we hope to permit limited general admission outside. We will provide tents, but that likely won’t happen until March. This is a fluid situation, and we really are praying for vaccines to be widely spread!

AMP: Tell us about the challenges of adjusting on a dime when the pandemic hit last spring.

CELLA: We were one of the first businesses to recognize the urgency of the

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Louis Cella

situation. We were all dealing with the uncertainty and the unknown. When we learned of a patron having direct exposure and testing positive for COVID while attending the races, the seriousness of this pandemic rang true. Ceasing operations, although financially terrible, was the responsible thing to do. There was no playbook. We really were making it up and calling audibles on the fly.

who are involved with the care and maintenance of those horses, and 1,000 of our own employees.

It was a massive undertaking for the better part of two months, and we did it without a single negative incident. I’ve never been more proud of our organization and our staff than I was with how we performed during that period of time.

AMP: What were the most daunting challenges you faced?

AMP: How has the pandemic impacted progress on the expansion, and how’s the expansion going?

CELLA: For almost two months, we raced without fans. We were the first sports franchise in America to have to work through the logistics of that. Now, virtually all sports franchises are doing it.

And quite a few professional teams, and not just within the horse racing industry, have since called and asked for our playbook. We had responsibility for 1,500 of the finest and most expensive horses in America, approximately 1,000 people

CELLA: It’s made it much more difficult with all the daily safety precautions and the major backlog on materials and supplies. Items from overseas are delayed; items from within the U.S. are delayed; shipping, trucking and rail are delayed. But we are making progress and are excited to be planning a grand opening hopefully by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

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AMP: How have casino patrons adjusted to the COVID protocols now in place?

CELLA: By and large, the vast majority share our dedication to safety. By now, they understand Oaklawn is absolutely and positively going to have a safe environment. In fact, several patrons comment that Oaklawn is the safest place to go in Arkansas.

Because we took our employees’ and fans’ health and safety so seriously from the beginning, there is an expectation that we offer a safe environment. That means temperature checks on everyone, IDs, banding, no-exception masking, no congregating and everything else, including spraying disinfectant throughout the facility every day. We offer touchless payments, and we voluntarily close our food and beverage earlier than mandated because we don’t want people to let their guards down.

The handful of patrons who did not share our dedication to safety simply had to go elsewhere. We take the responsibility of being a good corporate citizen quite seriously. This is our community, and we are not going to let it go backwards during this pandemic.

AMP: What kind of financial hit has Oaklawn taken due to the pandemic?

CELLA: It’s just about the worst-case scenario. First, your expenses shoot up.

Then, you either have no customers or a restricted number of customers. And you’re in the middle of a $100 million expansion project. Add to that our commitment of investing money back into racing, improving our grandstand, improving our backstretch before horses return. Putting this all together, it is daunting, and it will keep you up at night.

AMP: One could argue that the products and services you offer have increased in value because of the limited access. Do you anticipate a flood of customers once things are fully reopened?

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CELLA: We are building Arkansas’ first world-class racing, gaming and resort facility that will be attractive to people throughout all of middle America.

The vaccines are coming. America and Arkansas will get back to normal. And when that happens, Oaklawn will be ready to help take Arkansas hospitality and tourism to an even higher level of excellence. Yes, when we eventually open back up, we have a wonderful surprise for our fans, and we think they will be amazed and enthusiastically embrace it.

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AMP: Has the pandemic forced you to change or alter any long-term plans?

CELLA: No. Representing the fourth generation of managing one of the oldest businesses in Arkansas, we’ve come through plenty of challenges before.

World wars, the Great Depression, natural disasters, even the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918. We have seen difficult times before. Like Arkansas and America, we are resilient, and we will come through this better and stronger than ever. We owe it to ourselves to require that.

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The Port of Little Rock is starting its 61st year, and our primary mission is to create jobs for Little Rock and Central Arkansas. We do that by buying and selling real estate and marketing our community to manufacturers from around the world. Our board of directors works every day to make sure the Port of Little Rock remains the best inland port in America.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES CENTRAL ARKANSAS BENEFIT FROM THE PORT OF LITTLE ROCK?

Obviously, the creation of high-paying jobs benefits everyone, and the Port has done a good job of fulfilling its mission. The location of the Port and the greenfield land available for development sets our community apart from others by creating opportunities for investment from global companies. No other Arkansas community has this asset.

Congratulations

BRYAN DAY on being named a 2021

AMP Influencer of the Year!

HOW MANY EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES ARE BASED AT THE PORT?

Currently, there are 42 companies from five different countries and when those companies are fully staffed, more than 7,000 individuals from 20-plus counties will make their living at the Port.

DESCRIBE THE LOGISTICS INVOLVED IN KEEPING THE PORT RUNNING SMOOTHLY.

The Port operates a short-line railroad serving both the UP and BNSF railroads.

During a given year, we will move about 10,000 rail cars to and from the industries at the Port. The Port also partners with Logistic Services Inc. (LSI), our stevedoring company, to manage three river docks and multiple warehouses.

LSI will load or unload about 800,000 tons of commodities every year. These logistical options help industries keep their costs down.

DOES LITTLE ROCK SIT IN A STRATEGIC LOCATION IN TERMS OF MOVING GOODS?

I believe that the Port’s location in the middle of the country, next to the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, next to a comprehensive interstate system, on the banks of the Arkansas River, and the ability to serve to main-line railroads (UP and BNSF) set us up to have the most strategic location in the region to serve and attract industry.

HOW CAN THE PORT HELP LOCAL COMPANIES GO GLOBAL?

The Port is a global entity, and we work with a variety of companies to help them meet their needs. I believe that if a local company wanted to expand or a global company wanted to locate here, we could work with our partners at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce to grow that company — that is what we do.

www.portoflittlerock.com

2021

INFLUE

ENCERS OF THE YEAR

Influencers come in many shapes and sizes. Influencers can be mentors, CEOs, teachers; their influence can be effectively subtle or dynamic; they can influence overtly or otherwise. But they all share one common denominator — they are leaders.

Arkansas Money & Politics presents its second annual class of AMP Influencers of the Year. These leaders in Arkansas industry and politics were nominated by AMP readers and ultimately selected by our 2021 Board of Advisors, made up of members of the inaugural class of AMP Influencers.

One of this year’s Influencers, Dr. Jose Romero of the Arkansas Department of Health, appears on this month’s cover. Learn more about Romero and our other Influencers on the pages that follow.

Each member of the 2021 class has influenced his or her field in significant ways. Our thanks to AMP readers for nominating such worthy leaders. We’re proud to showcase them.

INFLUENCERS OF THE YEAR/COVER

BATTLEFIELD PROMOTION FOR DR. JOSE ROMERO, THERE’S ‘NO TIME TO BE OVERWHELMED’

BY M A RK CA RTE R

r. Jose Romero doesn’t see himself as a character in a Michael Crichton novel. On the contrary, Arkansas’ newest secretary of health is a self-described academic/ physician. That’s all. It just so happens that his expertise lies in infectious disease and immunization practices.

But there is a pandemic going on, and who other than a humble doctor/scholar to be thrust into a position of leading an entire state through it? The Andromeda Strain, anyone?

While any comparison of Crichton’s 1969 thriller about a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism to COVID-19 is, of course, a stretch, Romero did answer the call when his adopted state needed him. Just as university researchers like him did in the novel.

His ascent to health secretary, a cabinet-level position, wasn’t so much a battlefield promotion, except that it kind of was one. Romero was chief medical officer for the Arkansas Department of Health when he was tabbed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in July of 2020 to serve as the state’s interim secretary of health. Former Health Secretary Dr. Nate Smith had just left for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, and the pandemic didn’t leave much room for an exhaustive candidate search. Turns out, there was no need for one, even though the job had never been on Romero’s radar.

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By August, the interim tag had been removed, and Romero now advises Hutchinson daily on the state’s most pressing issue, serves as the face of what’s currently the state’s most prominent agency and leads a department of more than 1,000 employees. Such job descriptions underscore his inclusion on AMP’s list of 2021 Influencers of the Year, even if his under-the-radar style belies it.

—— Hutchinson called Romero’s promotion an easy decision when he announced it this past summer. Romero had already been serving as chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a prestigious position that entails providing primary guidance on vaccines to the federal government and one that’s helped him build a national reputation.

“He has been involved in our fight against COVID-19 from the first day,” Hutchinson said when he took the interim off Romero’s new title. “His vast knowledge of viral infections has been integral to our decision making as we have refined our response to the pandemic.”

Born in Mexico and raised in California, Romero harbored dreams of becoming a community pediatrician in areas of need. But his path ultimately led him to academia and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he served other areas of need as director for the offices of Minority Health Education and Research and Latino HealthRelated Research Affairs. In 2008, the path detoured south.

Romero joined the staff of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital as director of the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. He also directed clinical trials research at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute before moving over to ADH. Since his arrival in Arkansas, he’s been a member of the Arkansas Vaccine Medical Advisory Committee, serving as its chair since 2015. And Romero has carried the title of ADH Pediatric Tuberculosis Physician since 2012.

The sudden transition from working primarily behind the scenes to an overtly public role has been an adjustment, Romero admits. “I never expected to be in this role. I came to work at the Health Department as CMO and thought that would be my role here. I didn’t plan to become Secretary of Health, but it’s quite an honor.”

The mechanism for guiding the state through a pan-

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demic was already in place when Romero became the face of ADH. And his years of experience in Nebraska and as section chief for infectious diseases at UAMS and Children’s afforded him a degree of comfort with an administrative role.

Whether it’s behind the scenes or in a cabinet-level position, Romero relies on a tried-and-true method of leadership.

“A leader has to lead by example, and that example has to be transmitted throughout the institution,” he said. “I hope that I set the example by showing a work ethic that others can look to. I don’t expect my epidemiologists to be working weekends and holidays if I’m not working weekends or holidays. My chief of staff has asked me if I should take some time off, and what I’ve told her is that I’ll take time off when this thing is under control. That’s an important leadership skill, at least to me.”

Having worked both behind the scenes and in front of the cameras, Romero places special emphasis on recognizing hard work throughout the department and encouraging his employees. “It’s always important, and even more so in a pandemic or in a stress situation like this, that you convey gratitude down through the ranks,” he stressed.

Romero is quick to deflect any praise to his entire ADH team, which he said has acted as a sounding board and helped smooth his transition from creating plans to implementing them.

“Quite frankly, they keep you from making mistakes,” he said of his employees. “They point out the pitfalls and the advantages, and then it’s up to me to make the decisions. That was probably the hardest part of transitioning into this role — that I’m more of a decision-maker than an implementer of ideas. And that’s not something that we’re trained for as academic physicians.”

—— Romero warns against thinking the pandemic is over just because vaccines are being produced and in the early stages of distribution. “We have to prepare ourselves for more months of hard work,” he said.

As someone who’s dedicated his professional life to public health, Romero intends to keep grinding whether he’s in front of the podium or not, whether he’s generating ideas or decisions.

“I don’t have time to be overwhelmed,” he said.

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MATT BELL Co-Founder, Entegrity

M

att Bell has been an influencer in the finance and construction industries, and as partner at Little Rock’s Entegrity, he’s now influencing the solar and advanced energy fields. Prior to co-launching Entegrity with Chris Ladner, Bell co-founded a commercial general-contractor company in Little Rock and also worked in real estate finance and as a private real-estate investor. Bell is a LEED Accredited Professional through the U.S. Green Building Council, Certified Energy Manager (CEM) through the Association of Energy Engineers and an active member of AEE. He also serves on the board for the Little Rock Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Improvement District and the

National Association of Energy Services Companies (NAESCO). Under his leadership, Entegrity has been recognized as Sustainable Business of the Year (2012), ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastestgrowing companies in America (2014-2015), won the Arkansas Advanced Energy Business Innovation Award (2017) and been named three times as one of Arkansas’ best places to work. Entegrity serves the commercial, education (K-12 and higher ed) and government markets, working with firms throughout the region including FedEx, the cities of Hot Springs and Eureka Springs, Tulsa Public Schools, the Arkansas Department of Correction and the Central Arkansas Library System.

BRENT BIRCH Executive Director, Little Rock Tech Park

T

he question isn’t so much, “Is Brent Birch an influencer?” The question is more, “Just what doesn’t he influence?” Under the guidance of Birch and the LRTP board authority, the tech park has remained viable through COVID-19 and continues its planned four-phase, multimilliondollar development. Prior to joining the effort to bolster the Central Arkansas tech startup community, Birch was an executive for Arkansas Business Publishing Group, where in 2010 he launched Greenhead: The Arkansas Duck Hunting Magazine.

An avid waterfowler, he also wrote and published 2018’s The Grand Prairie: A History of Duck Hunting’s Hallowed Ground.

Birch sits on the board of the Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation and in 2016 was named to the inaugural class of the Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame. Birch is active in Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl. A licensed real estate agent, Birch also chairs the Downtown Little Rock Partnership and is a former chairman of the Little Rock Open, part of the professional men’s tennis ATP Challenger Tour. Plus, he’s a five-time USTA league tennis state champion. From 1990 to 1993, the North Little Rock native pitched for the Arkansas Razorbacks, earning four letters and helping lead the Diamond Hogs to a Southwest Conference championship and NCAA tournament appearance in 1990.

BRET CARROLL CEO, Conway Corporation

B

ret Carroll was named CEO of Conway Corp in 2017, just the sixth person to hold the title in the company’s more than 90-year history. He started at Conway Corp in 1998 as the company’s chief financial officer. Since taking over the leadership role at the public utility, Carroll has been busy.

For the Arkansas Municipal Power Association, he established the accounting, finance and customer service committee focusing on best practices; led implementation of a defined contribution plan to supplement the pension plan at Conway Corp; and guided the company to execution of a solar power

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purchase agreement for a 132 MW (dc) of renewable energy that’s expected to provide roughly 23 percent of Conway Corp’s electric load.

A Little Rock (Mabelvale) native and graduate of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Carroll is an avid turkey hunter in the spring and duck hunter in winter. His professional affiliations include the Arkansas Society of CPAs, the American Institute of CPAs, the American Public Power Association and the Arkansas Municipal Power Association, serving on the boards of the latter two.

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JAY CHESSHIR President/CEO, Little Rock Chamber

J

ay Chesshir is well-known for his involvement in the capital city’s development. In 2006, the proud native of Nashville (Howard County) became the 15th president and CEO in the 143-year history of the chamber. Chesshir began his career at the chamber in 2005 as economic development vice president.

He also served as senior staff executive for Fifty for the Future and executive director of the Metro Little Rock Alliance, an 11-county marketing coalition dedicated to promoting Central Arkansas.

In 2016, Chessir was elected national board chair of the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE), representing more than 7500 chamber professionals from more than 1,300 chambers of

commerce across the United States and Canada.

The next year, he became the only person in ACCE’s 103-year history elected to serve a second term board chair. Chesshir and his team have worked to help secure economic development projects accounting for more than $2.6 billion in new and expanded capital investment, more than 17,500 jobs and $636 million in new annual payroll for the metro Little Rock region.

In addition, he currently serves on the UA Little Rock College of Business Advisory Board, the UA Little Rock College of Engineering & Information Technology Leadership Council, the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board, the Venture Center Board and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100.

BRYAN DAY Executive Director, Port of Little Rock

B

ryan Day has been involved with state and local government for more than 35 years, and the wide array of positions he has held have allowed him to focus on building and strengthening communities. Day was appointed executive director of the Little Rock Port Authority in June 2014. Prior to assuming this position, Day spent 20 years working for the City of Little Rock, during which he served as the assistant city manager and director of Little Rock Parks and Recreation.

Day started his career in government in 1987 when he was hired by the Arkansas State Park system. As executive director at the port, Day works closely with industry located within the 4,000-acre

industrial park and oversees the Port Authority Railroad, which is served daily by the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Railroads. Additionally, Day oversees the industrial and slackwater harbors.

He also serves as a member of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Transportation Advisory Council and is a board member on the Arkansas Oklahoma Port Operators Association, the Inland Rivers, Ports and Terminals Association and serves on the executive committee of the National Waterways Council. In 2017, Day was appointed as a charter member of the Arkansas State Parks and Recreation Foundation.

Day received his undergraduate and master of public administration degrees from UA Little Rock.

DR. JENNIFER DILLAHA Infectious Disease Specialist, Arkansas Department of Health Director, Center for Health Advancement

D

r. Jennifer A. Dillaha is an infectious disease specialist with the Arkansas Department of Health in Little Rock and serves as Director of the Center for Health Advancement and has been in practice for more than 20 years. Dillaha graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine in 1994. Since joining the health department in 2001, Dillaha has played a pivotal role in health promotion efforts, using a life-stage approach that focuses on populationbased interventions to reduce the burden of chronic disease among all Arkansans.

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Under her direction, the department has made strides to improve the health literacy of Arkansans by prioritizing health education in the community.

This has proven to be crucial in the agency’s prevention effects. Dillaha has specialty training in internal medicine and subspecialty training in infectious diseases and geriatric medicine. Additionally, she holds multiple academic positions, including that of assistant professor in the UAMS Colleges of Public Health and College of Medicine.

Dillaha continues to work with the state’s medical leaders to ensure that Arkansas is able to move past the pandemic.

JA N UA RY 2021

JOHN FURNER President/CEO, Walmart U.S.

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s president and chief executive officer of Walmart U.S., John Furner oversees the strategic direction and performance of more than 4,700 stores and more than 1 million associates. Furner previously served as president/CEO of Sam’s Club from 2017-2019. Under his direction as CEO, Sam’s Club totaled 11 consecutive quarters of positive sales growth while increasing membership numbers.

Furner started with Walmart as an hourly associate in 1993 at Store 100 in Bentonville. He has held a wide range of diverse and important roles in the

company including assistant store manager, store manager, district manager, buyer, regional general manager, divisional merchandising manager, vice president of global sourcing, general merchandise manager, head of marketing and merchandising for Walmart China and chief merchant for Sam’s Club.

Furner currently serves on the boards of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation and National Retail Federation. Furner holds a bachelor of science in marketing management from the University of Arkansas.

KALENE GRIFFITH President/CEO, Visit Bentonville

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alene Griffith is the president and CEO of Visit Bentonville, which promotes the city of Bentonville as a world-class travel destination.

Griffith played competitive softball at Dodge City Community College and rugby at Kansas State University. She started her community-focused career at Dodge City Parks and Recreation as the adult sports coordinator, which led to her being hired years later as the president and CEO of Visit Bentonville in 2005.

As the mother of a competitive athlete, ranging from soccer and basketball to softball, she continues to witness firsthand the experience of

tourism in other cities as she travels to attend her daughter's softball games and tournaments. Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed Griffith to the Arkansas State Parks, Heritage and Tourism Commission.

She is a board member of the Southeast Tourism Society, the Arkansas Hospitality Association Travel Council, the Arkansas Association of Convention Visitors Bureau, Bentonville Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Bentonville Inc., Bentonville Public Arts Advisory Board, Bentonville History Museum, Dress For Success and Amazeum Children's Museum.

JEFF HATHAWAY President/CEO, Hathaway Group

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s president and CEO of Hathaway Group in Little Rock, Hathaway uses local knowledge and deep experience to overcome real estate challenges, all while displaying a deep adoration for the Natural State’s capital city. Hathaway has been selling real estate for decades with the firm, which was founded by his father, Jim Hathaway. Before he joined the firm in August of 1983, Hathaway was an assistant investment manager for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Little Rock. He credits “on-the-

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job training” since the age of 23 for the incredible insight that clients of Hathaway Group count on.

Hathaway graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1981 with a degree in economics. He has earned certifications from the CCIM Institute and from the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.

He is chairman-elect of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and has won the Halter/ Case Leadership Award from Coldwell Banker Commercial.

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REP. FRENCH HILL U.S. Representative, Arkansas Second District

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ongressman French Hill is the 22nd Member of Congress to represent Central Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected on November 4, 2014, and began his first congressional term in the 114th Congress on January 3, 2015.

Hill is a member of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services where he serves as ranking member of the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy.

In 2019, Hill was selected to be a member of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Republican House Whip Team. Prior to his congressional service, Hill was actively engaged in the

Arkansas business community for two decades as a commercial banker and investment manager. He was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., which was headquartered in Little Rock and merged with Arkansas-based Simmons First National Corp.

For his leadership and service at the U.S. Treasury and the White House, Hill was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady in January 1993. Hill is a past president of the Rotary Club of Little Rock and served as the 2013 chairman of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

TAMIKA JENKINS Project Coordinator, Mississippi County Economic Development Commission

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amika Jenkins is a project coordinator with the Mississippi County Economic Development Commission and has been with the organization since 2007. As the former executive director of the South Mississippi County United Way, she shares a vast network with many nonprofit agencies and helps them achieve their individual and collective goals.

Jenkins has worked on many projects that study the attitudes, mind sets and habits of impoverished people in Mississippi County. With a background in engineering and project management, she possesses the organizational skills needed to lift any project

off of the ground and keep it going.

Jenkins has served on the Great River Charitable Clinic executive board and currently serves with Daddy’s Diamonds. She has completed a host of leadership programs throughout her career.

She belongs to Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Osceola, where she is a member of the praise team, a youth director, former church clerk and current treasurer. Jenkins is affiliated with the MCAEOC and Arkansas Northeastern College. She believes it’s necessary to provide hope to area youth through exposure to new and fruitful opportunities.

REP. FRED LOVE State Representative; Director of Community Services, Pulaski County

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tate Rep. Frederick Love began to cultivate his leadership skills throughout his undergraduate career at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He was able to earn a seat on the Pulaski County Democratic Committee in 1998 politics.

In May of 1999, Love received his bachelor of arts degree in political science with an emphasis in legal studies. He began to work in management in the private sector for several years before enrolling in the master of public administration (MPA) program at UA Little Rock. He received his MPA in 2004 and currently is working on his doctorate of public health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Love has worked for the Arkansas Foodbank

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Network as child and adult services Coordinator.

He currently is director of community services for Pulaski County. Love was elected to the state House of Representatives in November 2010, where he underscored the importance of volunteerism in Arkansas. He has served on the Legislative Task Force for Poverty and Economic Development where he chaired the Individual Security Committee. He also served several years on the Little Rock Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission as chair of the Education Committee.

Love also has served as a mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters and serves on the Pulaski County Youth Services Advisory Board. He is also an active member of the Prince Hall Masons.

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GEORGE MAKRIS CEO, Simmons First National Corporation

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hen George Makris joined Simmons in January 2013, the bank had operations in three states and total consolidated assets of approximately $2.1 billion. Today, the company stretches across a seven-state footprint with more than $21 billion in consolidated assets. While serving as CEO of Simmons First National Corporation, Makris has overseen the acquisition of numerous financial institutions. Previously, he worked with M. K. Distributors Inc., a family owned wholesale distribution business, serving as president from 1985 to 2012. He also was on the local board of directors of Pine Bluff, Arkansas’s Worthen Bank and successors from 1985 to 1996, serving as chairman of the board from 1994 to 1996.

Makris currently serves as a member of the

board for Jefferson Regional Medical Center and is chairman of the board for the Economic Development Corporation for Jefferson County. He has previously served as board chair for the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, the Greater Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce and Trinity Episcopal School. He also served as chair for the King Cotton Classic basketball tournament, as a director with the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Arkansas and the National Beer Wholesalers Association and as a board of visitors member for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the UAMS College of Medicine. A Rhodes College alumnus, Makris also holds a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas.

JUDY R. MCREYNOLDS Chairman, President and CEO, ArcBest

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s chairman, president and chief executive officer of ArcBest, Judy R. McReynolds is responsible for managing the multibillion-dollar logistics solutions company. Since 2010, McReynolds also has held the post of director of ArcBest Corporation and is the only member of the company’s senior management who serves on the board.

In 2016, she was elected as Chairman of the Board of ArcBest Corporation. McReynolds has more than 30 years of logistics and transportation industry experience, including 23 years at ArcBest. During her tenure, she has built upon ABF Freight’s 97-year-old less-than-truckload roots and diversified ArcBest into a leading logistics company whose mission is

to connect and positively impact the world through solving logistics challenges.

McReynolds serves on the Arkansas Innovation Council as appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

She also serves on the Dean’s Executive Advisory Board of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation Board. She is current chair of the American Transportation Research Institute board and a member of the American Trucking Associations board of directors and executive committee. A Certified Public Accountant, McReynolds holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Oklahoma.

CHARLES MORGAN CEO/Chairman, First Orion

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harles Morgan wears many hats, from chairman of the board to chief data inspector to race car driver and even author. He founded First Orion, which provides call transparency with in-network call control, in 2008 in Little Rock.

Morgan has extensive experience managing and investing in private and public companies, including Acxiom, the information services company based in Conway that he founded and grew to $1.4 billion in annual revenue with 7,000 employees worldwide.

Morgan served as Acxiom board chair for 30 years when he also held various leadership roles with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). In

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addition to First Orion, Morgan currently serves on the board of Inuvo and was bestowed the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from Marketing EDGE. Today, Morgan is leading the efforts of the Arkansas Center for Data Sciences, a publicprivate partnership devoted to upgrading the real-world computer and data analytic skills of the Arkansas workforce. A self proclaimed “gadget geek” from childhood, the Fort Smith native has raced motorcycles, flown jets and built and driven race cars in a professional racing career. He graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1966 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

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DR. CAM PATTERSON Chancellor, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

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am Patterson, M.D., MBA, leads Arkansas’ only health-sciences university with a mission to educate health-care professionals, perform research that translates to new treatments and deliver exceptional patient care across the Natural State.

Patterson, an accomplished cardiologist and healthcare administrator, has been chancellor of UAMS since June 2018. He was previously the senior vice president and chief operating officer of New YorkPresbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Komansky Children’s Hospital in New York. Patterson has previously held numerous academic and clinical appointments at the University of North Carolina, including as physician-in-chief at the UNC Center

for Heart and Vascular Care, and executive director of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute.

Patterson, as principal investigator or co-investigator, has received more than $60 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention throughout the course of his career. His work has been published in 323 peerreviewed scientific publications. He earned his bachelor of arts in psychology from Vanderbilt University, his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and his MBA from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler School of Business.

DENVER PEACOCK Principal, The Peacock Group

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enver Peacock, JD, APR, ABC, founded strategic communications firm The Peacock Group in 2014 after serving as senior vice president and on the board of directors for CJRW, then the mid-South’s largest independent public-relations agency.

The McCrory native has almost 25 years of experience in the industry, having previously provided political, communications and logistical support for The Prince of Wales Foundation, Clinton Foundation and a number of other clients. He served on two presidential campaigns and worked as a media trip coordinator in the Clinton White House.

Peacock earned his undergraduate degree from Ouachita Baptist University and his law degree from

the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he served on law review. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and International Association of Business Communicators. He serves as an advisory board member for UAMS College of Public Health and Arkansas’ Independent Colleges & Universities; assembly delegate for Arkansas PRSA; chairman of the Little Rock Sister Cities Commission; and president-elect nominee for the Rotary Club of Little Rock. He is the 2020 recipient of Arkansas PRSA’s Crystal Award, an internal award presented to chapter members who have made significant and continuous contributions to the field of public relations over the course of their careers.

SAM PITTMAN Head Football Coach, University of Arkansas

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eing an influencer in Arkansas is part of the job description when one coaches the Razorbacks, but to say Coach Sam Pittman has made an impression since he was hired in December 2019 to lift Arkansas football out of a ditch would be a gross understatement. Pittman had followed the Hogs since growing up in eastern Oklahoma and publicly made known his desire to end up at Arkansas. But his promotion from career assistant and highly respected offensive line coach to SEC head coach took some by surprise. But not his former players or those with whom he’s worked. Pittman was hired away from Georgia, where he served as OL coach

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and associate head coach for Kirby Smart. He previously spent three seasons at Arkansas, successfully coaching the line for Bret Bielema.

Pittman had been a head coach at the high school and junior college levels, but his hire to lead a Power 5 program was viewed as a gamble. He has more than proven that the UA brass right rolled sevens, leading the Hogs to three SEC wins and a bowl game in an SEC-only, COVID-shortened 2020 regular season.

Following the Chad Morris era that resulted in just four wins and a 19-game SEC losing streak, Pittman took a moribund program and immediately infused pride and hope when the state needed it most.

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MIKE PRESTON Arkansas Secretary of Commerce Executive Director, Arkansas Economic Development Commission

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ike Preston was appointed executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in March 2015, and named Secretary of Commerce July 2019. Preston is highly regarded as a leading advocate in economic development. He has made successful business recruitment trips to Japan, China, France, Germany, Israel, Cuba, Mexico, Italy, United Kingdom, New York City and Silicon Valley. These visits play an important role in the state’s economic development efforts and have led to more than 451 projects with companies signing agreements with AEDC to locate or expand in Arkansas. These companies are investing $9.24 billion and creating more

than 19,794 new jobs.

In 2018, Preston was selected to join The Wall Street Journal’s prestigious CEO Council. It is an invitation-only group that connects some of the world’s most ambitious and influential leaders to discuss the issues shaping the future. The members lead companies that collectively employ more than eight million people, generate $2.9 trillion in annual revenue and represent 20 countries in a wide cross section of industries. Preston graduated from the University of Florida in 2005. He volunteers in the community through organizations such as the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

MAYOR VERONICA SMITH-CREER City of El Dorado

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eronica Smith-Creer is a devout woman of faith who partners with her husband, Bobby D. Creer Sr., in life and business. SmithCreer is the elected leader of the town she loves, El Dorado, where she has spent her entire life. She is motivated to invoke change and instill in others the belief that together, anything is possible.

Smith-Creer is a 1988 graduate of El Dorado High School, and she obtained an associate’s degree from South Arkansas Community College, where she now serves as vice chair for its board.

In 2006, Smith-Creer began working with the

Democratic Party of Arkansas. Through the years, she has worked on multiple campaigns for state candidates through the Coordinated Campaign as well as local candidates. Her love for the city of El Dorado and the desire to see it live up to its projected potential has made her a community leader.

Her outgoing nature along with her ability to work well with others on all levels makes her a public servant. Smith-Creer wants to be remembered for standing up for what is right and for giving a voice to those who need to be heard.

ALLISON J.H. THOMPSON Executive Director, Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County

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llison J.H. Thompson has more than 20 years of economic development experience. She served more than 12 years as director of economic development for the city of Cedar Hill, Texas, simultaneously serving as executive director of the Cedar Hill Economic Development Corporation. During her tenure in Cedar Hill, Thompson led efforts to attract many new companies, while also helping several local businesses to expand.

Thompson holds a multitude of certifications and recognition from establishments such as the Inter-

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national Economic Development Council (IEDC), the National Development Council (NDC), and the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC).

She is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) and Fellow Member (FM) with IEDC, an Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP) with the NDC and Mary Jo Hanover Award recipient from IAMC. Thompson received a bachelor’s of science in criminal justice from Texas Christian University and a master’s degree in urban affairs from the University of Texas at Arlington.

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DR. JOE THOMPSON Director, Arkansas Center for Health Improvement

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r. Joe Thompson is the director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity. A former state surgeon general under former Gov. Mike Beebe, Thompson is a pediatrician with a longstanding interest in health care policy. He is an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine and an assistant professor and assistant dean pro tem for health policy studies in the UAMS College of Public Health. He received his medical degree from UAMS. Before attending medical school, Thompson was a 1984 graduate of Hendrix College with a degree in chemistry. He is the principal investigator in research

on health insurance access in Arkansas, working with external funding of more than $3.5 million.

He has received honors and awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health. A Fellow at the American College of Preventive Medicine, he has received the American Lung Association of Arkansas’ Emily Bissell Award for Advocacy, the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health’s Public Health through Public Policy Award and the Public Policy and Advocacy Award from the Academic Pediatric Association, among numerous other local, state and national honors.

JOHN RANDAL TYSON Chief Sustainability Officer, Tyson Foods

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ohn R. Tyson joined the Tyson Foods team in 2019 and currently serves as chief sustainability officer, leading the company’s efforts to support a more sustainable protein system. This position includes driving improvement efforts by implementing the company’s sustainability strategy as well as managing the sustainability, animal welfare, environmental and social responsibility teams.

As a member of Tyson Foods’ enterprise leadership team, Tyson reports to President/CEO Dean

Banks. Tyson has a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University and a master’s of business administration degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He previously worked in investment banking for J.P. Morgan and as a private equity and venture capital investor. He also is a lecturer at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Tyson is a fourthgeneration member of the Tyson family.

MINDY WEST Executive Vice President of Fuels/Chief Financial Officer/ Treasurer, Murphy USA

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rkansas native Mindy West is the current executive vice president of fuels, chief financial officer and treasurer for Murphy USA, the retail spinoff from Murphy Oil, in El Dorado. After working for Murphy Oil Corporation for 17 years, West assisted in the spinoff. Prior to her current position, she served as a vice president and treasurer for Murphy Oil from 2007 to 2013.

In her tenure at Murphy USA, West has overseen the fuels, finance, accounting, investor relations, asset development and procurement departments while leading numerous cross-functional strategic initiatives. An active supporter of El Dorado, Union County, south Arkansas and the state of Arkansas,

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West continues to expand her leadership roles by serving as a director on the boards of Simmons First National Corp., Simmons Bank, The United Way of Union County and the Razorback Foundation.

West also is an advisor to Southern Arkansas University Rankin College of Business through her participation on the SAU Business Advisory Council.

West earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and then obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. She is both a Certified Public Accountant as well as a Certified Treasury Professional.

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MAYOR VERONICA SMITH-CREER 2021 Arkansas Top Influencer

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POLITICS

This month, Arkansas Money & Politics introduces a new feature, “The Digs of the Deal,” that combines two of our favorite subjects — politics and history. Our goal is to tell the stories behind those places where deals actually are made, and Arkansas political history unfolds.

And we couldn’t imagine a better place to start than Doe’s Eat Place in Little Rock.

THE DIGS OF THE DEAL

Doe’s Eat Place Iconic spot made famous by Bill Clinton’s presidential run

BY KATIE ZAKRZEWSKI / PHOTOS BY EBONY BLEVINS

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oped a reputation throughout the region for its steaks.

Doe’s Eat Place was indeed one of Eldridge’s favorite stops.

Eventually, he asked himself, “Why fly to Greenville?,” and bought the rights to bring the name and the menu to Little Rock. In May 1988, Doe’s opened downtown on Markham in the same spot it sits today.

And the minute Doe’s opened in Little Rock, it was a hit. People familiar with Doe’s reputation wanted to check out its Little Rock equivalent.

The flow of customers into Doe’s was steady from the moment the restaurant opened its doors. But the scene changed overnight when Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton announced that he was running for president in 1991.

he building that now houses Doe’s Eat Place in Little Rock, located on West Markham downtown, was built in 1895.

For the first few decades of its life, the building housed several mercantile stores in the growing capital city. In the 1940s, several restaurants came and went.

But it wasn’t until the 1990s that the building’s role in Arkansas politics would really begin. ****** For years, Arkansas hobby pilot and demolition expert George Eldridge would fly friends and clients to a humble little dive in Greenville, Miss. that had devel-

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George Eldridge and his daughter — and current Doe’s owner — Katherine Eldridge remember when Doe’s Little Rock became a national media fixation.

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The day after Clinton announced his run for the White House, Doe’s became a place of local and even national fixation.

Eldridge remembers like it was yesterday.

“We had the presence of Bill and Hillary right here in the restaurant. It became a political hangout,” he told Arkansas Money & Politics, as he peered around at the walls covered in framed political memorabilia. “After Bill announced that he was running for president, they made their headquarters just down the street, so he and his campaign team always ate here.

“I’ve been feeding Clinton since the 1970s, when he was the attorney general.”

The day after Clinton announced his run for the White House, Doe’s became a place of local and even national fixation. Clinton appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in September 1992, and the interview took place at Doe’s.

Eldridge says he’s been feeding Bill Clinton since the 1970s.

Photos and political memorabilia line the walls at Doe’s.

Clinton’s affinity for Doe’s followed him to the White House, and the Eldridges were passengers on the gravy train.

“After Clinton won the White House, we were in D.C. a lot,” the elder Eldridge recalled. “If you were from Arkansas, you were a rock star there. People recognized me, too, after some time. They’d say, ‘Isn’t that the guy who owns Doe’s?’ Clinton had a great mind for remembering people and introducing people to others on a ground level. Washington had never seen anything like it. It made some folks in D.C. nervous.”

George and Katherine were invited to a host of events in Washington, not just as caterers but as guests and friends. George escorted former Doe’s chef Lucille Robinson to the ‘92 Inaugural Ball. A portrait of the

Katherine Eldridge, George’s daughter and owner since 2012, was waiting tables at the time and remembers the uptick in celebrity visits starting in ’91.

“Limos would pull up to the restaurant,” she said.

“And all sorts of media would try to get in.”

Soon the restaurant was frequented by a host of prominent media figures and political pundits including George Stephanopoulos, Mandy Grunwald, Andy Rooney, Wolf Blitzer, Barbara Walters and Dee Dee Myers. And the walls at Doe’s are covered with hundreds of pictures of celebrities who visited, eager to sample for themselves the restaurant’s growing renown. Photos of Willie Nelson, Greg Allman, Don Tyson, James Cotton, Albert King and many more line the walls from top to bottom.

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“After Clinton won the White House, we were in D.C. a lot. If you were from Arkansas, you were a rock star there.” two, taken by internationally recognized photographer Annie Lebowitz, has found a home on the wall at Doe’s alongside dozens of other memorabilia.

Even with the Clintons no longer in town, Doe’s had firmly secured its place as a designated lunch spot for politicians and business people across the capital city. So much so that a handful of lobbyists including Earl Jones, Don Allen, Paul Berry and Bob Smith, to name a few, took it upon themselves to expand Doe’s.

“We built the Power Room here in 1990,” Elridge explained. “A group of lobbyists wanted a more private place to eat and discuss and make deals, so they all put up $1,000 a piece to cover construction costs, and I put the money towards their food credit. We built the Power Room so that they could have a private room to themselves.”

During legislative sessions, the lobbyists who had invested in the expansion had dibs on the Power Room, which otherwise was open to everyone. Today, Eldridge said the room still hosts political fundraisers, business

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lunches and dinners, as well as entertainment.

“Clinton would also come in and watch the Hogs in there,” he said.

Katherine Eldridge remembers the wheeling and dealing that took place in the Power Room. She said lobbyists and lawmakers were sometimes able to get more done at Doe’s than they were at the state Capitol.

“While I couldn’t hear everything that happened between lobbyists and politicians in there, whenever I would step in to refill a drink or bring in an order, I was under the impression that progress was being made,” she said. “There wasn’t as much pressure to find a solution here as there was in a political chamber or formal setting.”

byist once said, “I have Democrat clients who think I’m a Republican, and Republican clients who think I’m a Democrat.” And the Eldridges have plenty of GOP and Democratic Party customers.

“The governor [Asa Hutchinson] comes in; Congressman French Hill has had his fundraisers down here, lots of folks with different affiliations eat here,” George Eldridge added.

Unfortunately, an election year pandemic left Doe’s a little less packed than it would’ve otherwise been in 2020.

“Because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to host fundraisers during a presidential election year, and a huge election at that,” Katherine Eldridge explained.

“It hurt us business-wise. The service industry has been devastated, and we’re holding on tight.”

The theme song for the ’92 Clinton campaign was Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” Despite the bump in the road that was 2020, the Eldridge family is thinking about tomorrow. Recent renovations created a new, dog-friendly patio in the space behind the main building that formerly was occupied by the iconic Doghouse Liquor. The sign for the old beer grab adorns the patio, appropriately enough.

Doe’s has stood the test of time from its tuckedaway corner of downtown Little Rock, secure in its status as a launch pad for political movements and even business deals that won’t make the front page.

“We’ve been here for several decades. I’m sure we will be for several decades more,” George Eldridge assured.

****** It’s not all politics at Doe’s. The restaurant caters to nonpolitical groups and organizations as well.

“Every Tuesday for eight weeks, we’ve had a men’s church group come in and do Bible study. We have a financial group that has come in very frequently,” Katherine Eldridge said. “We’ve had rehearsal dinners, large birthday parties and even traditional wakes.”

Her father added, “Kids who grew up eating here have their wedding rehearsal parties here. Then after a few years, they start bringing their kids here.”

Still, the Doe’s legacy in Little Rock is centered on politics. Acutely aware of the role the restaurant has played in Arkansas politics, the Eldridges try to remain politically neutral in every way. As one Arkansas lob-

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The old Doghouse Liquor sign adorns the new Doe’s patio.

Then-President Clinton and the Doe’s staff.

Katherine Eldridge and Bill Clinton inside Doe’s.

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DOE'S KNOWS LUNCH & DINNER Locally owned & operated for 30 years!

FULL BAR & PRIVATE PARTY ROOM W-TH: Lunch 11-2 & dinner 5-8 Fri: Lunch 11-2 & dinner 5-9 Sat 5-9

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1023 West Markham Downtown Little Rock 501-376-1195 doeseatplaceLR.com 60

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FINANCE/TAX PREP

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THE TAXMAN COMETH Experts weigh in on the dynamics of tax policy in 2021

BY MARK CARTER

A new year always entails a degree of uncertainty, this year more than most. A lingering pandemic, businesses still struggling to stay open, a new administration poised to assume office on Capitol Hill…

With tax season dawning in a year with potentially drastic changes on the horizon, Arkansas Money & Politics connected with several tax/finance experts in Central Arkansas. We asked this group of experts — Rocky Goodman, CPA, managing partner of Garland & Greenwood in Little Rock; Kelly Phillips, CPA, shareholder with Bell & Co. of North Little Rock; Ernie Skyrme, CPA, partner with BKD’s Little Rock office; and Mark Todd, CPA, managing partner with Little Rock’s Todd & Associates — how a change in leadership at the top could impact taxes; what business owners and CEOs can expect this tax season; how PPP loan forgiveness will impact taxes; and more.

Rocky Goodman, Garland & Greenwood

Q:

What impact could Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness have this tax season?

A:

One of the biggest unknowns heading into the 2020 (2021) tax season centers on PPP loan forgiveness. As a reminder, the CARES Act was passed back in March of 2020. It had many facets and features designed to assist individuals and small businesses survive during the havoc that was believed to be wreaked upon the economy due to the coronavirus. I think most economists and financial people agree that the act helped to stabilize the economy to some degree. One part of the act was the PPP loan, which allowed businesses to apply for and obtain a loan

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from the Small Business Administration.

The loan became extremely popular as the act provided a way for the borrower to have a portion or all of the loan forgiven if the monies were spent in very specific areas such as payroll, rent, utilities, retirement matching and employer-paid health care premiums, among others, in a specific time period. If the borrower laid off employees or reduced pay during the covered period of the loan, then the forgiveness amount would be reduced.

The act states that the forgiveness of the loan funds will not be taxable under the tax code. It also states that the covered expenses used in the forgiveness calculations will not be deductible for the year in which those expenses were paid (2020). As we are now nearing the

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end of the year with those covered periods expiring, borrowers are faced with the reality of those expenses being disallowed as a deduction, which is effectively causing the PPP loan funds received to be taxable.

The thing to keep your eye on is whether Congress steps in and changes this taxability issue. Many people in Washing-

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ton, along with other organizations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, are lobbying to get this changed, as they do not believe this was the intent when the act was passed.

There could be some strategy involved in filing 2020 returns when it comes to this waiting game. Most of our clients want to go ahead and apply for the forgiveness of the loan but possibly wait to file their returns until Congress has acted.

Q:

What can we expect with all of the changes in Washington?

A:

One of the most difficult things to do is help a client with long-range planning.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, long-term planning was much easier because we knew the tax code was somewhat stable. We could more than likely tell you what the tax rates and deductible items would be 10 years ahead. That luxury was thrown out of the window a number of years ago and now seems as far away as pre-COVID times. Years ago when our leaders began to let the budget funding almost lapse, sometimes resulting in government shutdowns, we began to get some negotiated tax tweaks to assist with the budget. There were times this happened in November or December and would become retroactive as of the beginning of the same year. This makes planning almost impossible as there is precedent to change the rules of the game after it has already started.

In 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed, the largest change in the tax code in 30 years. The Republicans saw this as an opportunity to shape the tax code, which they believed, at the time, was more favorable to the other side of the aisle. The widespread changes in TCJA affected everything from personal exemptions to the estate tax exclusion.

This definitely changed how we assisted our clients in planning for the next year and for the longer term.

Fast forward to November 2020. The

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Democrats won back the White House, and all eyes were on a couple of Senate runoff elections in Georgia, which could have massive impacts in how successful Democrats will be in passing tax legislation. President-elect Joe Biden has laid out his tax plans, which call for sweeping changes that will no doubt keep CPAs and financial advisors busy for the foreseeable future.

The best we can do is plan based upon the current tax law with one eye looking toward possible changes. We have had conversations with clients since the election about possibly not entering into a 1031 exchange when selling property but instead paying capital-gains taxes now as those rates will most likely never be lower than they are today. Other conversations have centered on electing portability when a spouse dies. With the estate tax exemption north of $11 million per person, filing portability of the deceased spouse’s exemption to the surviving spouse seems unnecessary, but the Biden plan is to reduce this exemption back to $5 million per person along with disallowing a step up in basis in assets at death.

Q:

What are the biggest tax advantages for businesses and individuals for 2020 and 2021?

A:

We have definitely had a busy year or two for tax law and assistance during the pandemic. Here are a few items to think about and of which to be aware: a) Stimulus — The CARES Act included a refundable tax credit worth as much as $1,200 for individuals and $500 for qualifying children. The tax credit is for the 2020 tax return but was paid out in early 2020 to pump money into the economy. Many people received their check, but many did not for various reasons. If you did not receive the check, all is not lost. There will be a form on the tax return filed for 2020, and if you are eligible for some part of the stimulus and

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have not received it early, you will get the credit at that time. b) Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) — The SECURE Act changed the age at which you have to take an RMD from 70½ to 72. This can be very beneficial to you by delaying taxable income by a couple of years and continuing to let your retirement savings grow without touching them. If you have already begun taking distributions, then the extension to age 72 would not apply. c) Net Operating Losses (NOL) — This area has changed a couple of times with a pre-TCJA, TCJA, and now the CARES Act rules. TCJA removed the ability to carry back NOLs and only allow a deduction of 80 percent of carry-forward losses.

The CARES Act temporarily reset the treatment of NOLs to pre-TCJA rules. If you as an individual or business had an NOL in 2018 or 2019, or have one in 2020, you are allowed to carry those back up to five years to receive an immediate refund. d) Qualified Improvement Property (QIP) – When TCJA was passed so quickly, there were drafting errors. The one that had the most impact was with QIP, which is any improvement to an interior portion of an existing nonresidential building excluding enlarging the building, adding elevators or escalators or work to the internal structural framework of the building. It is assumed that in drafting the bill, Congress failed to assign QIP a 15-year recovery period, which would make it eligible for bonus depreciation. This is an area that many CPAs and business owners lobbied to have corrected, and the CARES Act included a technical correction to change QIP to the 15year recovery period rendering it eligible for bonus depreciation. The change was made retroactive as of Sept. 27, 2017 (the date of the original change with TCJA) and allows taxpayers to amend prior tax returns of file for a change in accounting method on their 2019 or 2020 tax returns.

Essentially, a taxpayer may be able to write off the entire improvement in one year.

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Kelly Phillips, Bell & Co.

Q:

Given the loosening of eligibility rules, should remote workers claim a home-office deduction this year?

A:

It would be nice to be able to claim a home-office deduction this year; unfortunately, as part of the changes brought about by Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, miscellaneous itemized deductions were axed. So, there’s no place to claim a home office deduction for a W-2 employee. (It wasn’t that easy to do in the first place; you had to get over 2 percent of your AGI in expenses before you could deduct the first dollar.) If someone is self-employed or is a partner in a partnership and can take unreimbursed partnership expenses against their partnership income, they may be able to take a home-office deduction if they meet the stringent rules for doing so. The rules state that the area in the home must be used regularly, exclusively, and for the convenience of the employer as: the principal place of business; as a place to meet with clients in the normal course of business; or in connection with the business if it is a separate structure not attached to the taxpayer’s personal residence. Occasional or incidental business use doesn’t meet the test.

In evaluating the deduction with clients, the hardest part is that it must be used exclusively for business. Any personal use of the space, no matter how miniscule, means the exclusive-use test has not been met, and no deduction is available.

A schedule C worker may not use the home-office deduction to create a loss.

There are some different considerations if the taxpayer is a day care owner, but by and large, the home-office deduction is no longer an option for most taxpayers. The state of Arkansas does still allow miscellaneous itemized deductions, and it has followed the federal regulations with regard to home-office deductibility.

Q:

What other tax rules have been

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tweaked as a result of the pandemic?

A:

One of the larger questions arising out of working remotely is that of state taxation. If you lived and worked in California before the crisis, but once you were sent home to work remotely you returned to your family’s home in Arkansas, where should you have withholding remitted for purposes of state income tax? California?

Arkansas? Should you file a tax return in Arkansas? These are uncharted waters, and I think states will start challenging taxpayers to prove that they shouldn’t be taxed in the state where they worked remotely. In an Arkansas Revenue Legal Counsel Opinion in early 2020 (No. 20190514, Feb. 3), a remote worker was determined to have an Arkansas income-tax filing obligation even though the worker was providing services for a company that had no other ties to the state and for all other years would not have been required to file an Arkansas income-tax return. The ruling stated that it didn’t really matter that the employer didn’t have a corporate-filing requirement and that the employee working in Arkansas did not create a corporate-filing requirement, but the employee would have an Arkansas income tax obligation, whether the company withheld Arkansas income tax from the employee’s wages or not.

New York, in particular, has tried to address the remote working arrangement and asserted that work performed in another state by remote workers should be considered work performed in New York unless the work was performed outside the state for the necessity of the employer and not because it was more convenient for the employee to work in another taxing jurisdiction. Some states have a number-of-days threshold to determine if an employee should be filing an income tax return. There will be lots of states examining their rules closely to try and keep tax dollars from slipping across the borders. They will also be looking to tag workers who relocated either temporarily or permanently into their taxing jurisdictions, creating a new tax liability

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for themselves by working from home.

If you find yourself in this situation and filing two (or more!) state tax returns, there is probably some relief for you in your resident state. You can usually take a tax credit against your resident-state tax liability for taxes paid to other states.

Don’t assume that your tax situation has remained the same if you have changed where and how you work.

Q:

Will a change in leadership in Washington impact my taxes this year?

A:

We don’t think that there will be any large-scale changes to the tax code this year, even with a change in the White House. The primary concern is to make sure the bill passes and is signed that allows small businesses to deduct expenses they used Payroll Protection Plan money on and had forgiven. As it stands now, if a company got PPP money, and either has already received forgiveness of the loan or reasonably expects to receive forgiveness in 2021, they are not allowed to deduct the expenses that make up the amount being forgiven. Congress has repeatedly said this was never the intent of the plan, but as Congress did not specifically address it in the original law, the IRS interpreted and ruled on how taxpayers should treat the loans and the expenses for tax purposes. The fix to allow those expenses to be deducted is part of the bill that was still unsigned the final week of December. Hopefully, it will not get lost in the shuffle of back and forth and put all of PPP recipients in a bind, tax-wise.

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Ernie Skyrme, BKD

Q:

What should taxpayers know as they prepare for tax season?

A:

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness and deductibility could have had a significant effect on businesses and self-employed individuals. If a PPP loan was received by a business or self-employed individual, now is the time to apply for forgiveness if you haven’t already. In addition, if the PPP loan proceeds are expected to be forgiven, the forgiven income is non-taxable. Historically, this has meant that the business expenses related to these proceeds are not deductible for tax purposes. This would have resulted in an add-back of those expenses to the taxpayer’s taxable income and may surprise some taxpayers when they are ready to file their returns this filing season. The bill that was passed re-

cently allows for deductibility of the expenses, so this is a big win for taxpayers who received PPP loans and expect the proceeds to be forgiven.

Q:

How will a change in leadership in Washington impact taxes this year?

A:

If Democrats control the House and Senate, I would expect changes. For individuals, the top tax rate would increase from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. The qualified business-income deduction, which is currently a 20 percent deduction on qualified income from a trade or business, subject to limitations, would only be available to taxpayers whose taxable income is less than $400,000. The Biden tax proposal would increase the top rate for long-term capital gains and qualified dividends from 20 percent to 39.6 percent

Ernie Skyrme

for taxpayers making more than $1 million. For estate-tax purposes, each taxpayer currently receives an $11.58 million exemption before any of their estate is taxable upon his/her death. The amount over $11.58 million is taxed at 40 percent.

The proposal under the Biden tax plan is to reduce the estate-tax exemption to $3.5 million and any excess would be taxed at 45 percent.

MENTAL we are HEALTH aymag.com/mental-health-guide ARM O NE YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

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Mark Todd, Todd & Associates

[

Editor’s note: On Dec. 27, President Donald Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which provided routine annual funding for the federal government for 2021. This legislation also authorized approximately $1 trillion in funding for several pandemic-related stimulus programs, as well as revised some of the original stimulus provisions of the CARES Act of March 2020.

Q:

What are the primary stimulus provisions in the Appropriations Act?

A:

The new legislation funded direct payments to individuals of $600 per person (including dependents), and also renewed supplemental federal unemployment insurance payments of $300 per week through March 14, 2021. Additional benefits to Individual taxpayers include the ability to roll-forward unused flexible spending account dollars from 2020 through the end of 2021, and a charitable deduction up to $300 ($600 for joint filers) for filers claiming the standard deduction on their tax return.

For businesses, this legislation offers another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, includes tax credits for businesses who retain employees in 2021, and temporarily extends payroll tax credits for employees on paid leave for COVID-related reasons. It also included targeted tax incentives such as $10 billion in funding for child care providers, tax incentives for farmers and indirect aid to restaurants with 100 percent deductibility of business meals.

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]

Q:

Which businesses will qualify for the new PPP loans (PPP2 loans), and are there changes from the first PPP program?

A:

Businesses with 300 or fewer employees can qualify for “PPP2” loans if they experienced at least a 25 percent yearover-year decline in gross receipts (revenue) in any quarter of 2020 as compared to 2019. This includes businesses that received a PPP loan earlier in 2020, who are now eligible for a second PPP loan if they meet these requirements. Borrowers have up to 24 weeks to earn loan forgiveness, which requires that at least 60 percent of funds be used for payroll costs.

Other forgivable expenses include, rent, utilities, mortgage interest, worker protection costs, facility modification, software/cloud computing costs, accounting costs and essential supplier expenses.

Loans will be calculated based on 2.5 times average monthly payroll costs, but loans for businesses with NAICS codes starting with “72” (e.g. hotels and restaurants) will be calculated using 3.5 times average monthly payroll costs. Businesses can calculate average payroll costs using either the most recent 12 months of payroll, or 2019 payroll.

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Mark Todd

Q:

What original CARES Act provisions were revised or clarified?

A:

The most significant clarification of the CARES Act was Congress explicitly legislating the deductibility of all business expenses that are forgiven as part of the PPP loan program. These loans were originally positioned as being “tax-free,” but the IRS subsequently issued a ruling denying tax deductions for forgiven expenses thus effectively taxing the loan. The reinstatement of deductions is consistent with the original intent of Congress to provide taxfree stimulus to small business owners.

This new act also eliminated the requirement to subtract Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grants from the calculated forgiveness on PPP loans.

Congress also extended the Employee Retention Credit from the CARES Act through the second quarter of 2021, and now allows businesses with PPP loans to claim this credit after PPP funds are exhausted. For businesses that have been forcibly suspended or who have experienced at least a 20 percent decline in gross receipts, a retention credit of 70 percent of employee wages up to $10,000 can be claimed for each quarter that an employee is retained and that their wages will not count towards PPP forgiveness.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Better

Continued from page 7

GLOAMWARD BOUND To what should be the surprise of no one, the Oxford dictionary estimates the English language has more words than any other non-agglutinative terrestrial tongue.

Agglutinative languages, I’ve learned, are those that contain many morphemes (word roots, stems and affixes, for example) woven together in long strings of indefinite length.

Examples of languages based in the process of agglutination include Finnish, Korean, Swahili and Turkish.

While English speakers may not take as long to express themselves as agglutinative linguists, energy vampires notwithstanding, we certainly have plenty of words from which to choose when expressing a simple thought or idea.

For example, several English words could describe the dreamily darkening period just before sunset. Dusk, evening and twilight, of course, are tried-and-true choices. Can’t beat Les Brown’s (and later, the Platters’) “Twilight Time,” after all.

But then again, there’s our Word of the Month, that Scottish masterpiece, gloaming.

Though it lends itself to a Stephen King title, gloaming actually is an Old Englishturned-Scottish noun meaning evening twilight or dusk. Scots of old — and presumably, contemporary ones as well — occasionally used gloaming to refer to “morning twilight,” otherwise known as dawn. Just as day’s end delivers that midsummer night’s dance represented by the gloaming, its equivalent exists, just as dreamily, post-dawn.

According to the Scottish literary blog The Bottle Imp, gloaming is derived from the Old English glomung. But the word appeared to slip out of English use in the 12th century. From the blog: It is first recorded [in Scotland] in fifteenthcentury texts; a reference to ‘the glomyng of the nycht’ is found in the Original Chronicle of Scotland, and in Robert Henryson’s The Preiching of the Swallow, the bat (and man’s

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TOGETHER.

CPAs and Advisors, PLLC

soul) ‘in the gloming cummis furth to fle’.

but at least it’s not sticky by definition.

Seems the Scots picked up the gloaming and ran with it. Some into the dawn, some into the night…

Now, about that word, agglutination, surely worthy of its own month. It’s derived, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, from the Latin agglutinare, a verb meaning “to glue together.” English can be messy indeed,

****** As always, thanks for reading. Thanks for sticking with us through 2020. Our sincere hope is that readers made it through an unusual year with as little loss as possible. Here’s to a prosperous and healthy 2021. Hit me up with comments, suggestions or story ideas at MCarter@ ARMoneyandPolitics.com.

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W H AT TO

W EAR? IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOME OFFICING, MEN PONDER HOW TO DRESS FOR WORK

By Tyler Hale | Photography by Jamison Mosley

Stepping into Q Clothier in west Little Rock is like setting foot into a fashion vortex, filled with top-end custom suits, crisp button-up shirts and designer sweaters. With its dark wood, recessed shelving highlighting the suits within, the studied décor, including elk and moose antlers and a well-stocked bar, Q is a vision of what men’s clothing and style could be.

And that vision is all Paul Rainwater’s. Striding out from the back of the store, Rainwater is quick to welcome visitors, casually pointing out the colorful wall of ties and the 1930s barware, as he leads you deeper into the store.

It’s all done with an elegant flair, a grace that belies Rainwater’s long history in men’s clothing. He’s been in the industry since 1974, starting at the family store, Rainwater’s, in Fort

appointment. In 2018, he seized an opportunity to open Q Clothier at the burgeoning Promenade at Chenal.

Once in the back of Q Clothier, the magic begins. That’s where Rainwater brings out the tools of his trade — books of fabric swatches, style books and more that help him and his clients conjure up the perfect custom suit. This consultation determines the look and feel of the suit, from the suit fabric to the look of the lining to the thread color and beyond.

But lately, there’s been less call for suits and the traditional cloth-

The casual part is stronger than ever.

The business part is changing.

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Smith. He ran the shop for decades before decamping to Little Rock in 2012, operating independently for several years and seeing clients by

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The finer details for sale, from custom buttons to handkerchiefs.

ing that has largely defined the workplace dress code for men in the last half century. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have spent more time in front of a computer screen on Zoom calls than in a conference room.

As COVID-19 cases began rising and the nation prepared for a shutdown in March 2020, companies began sending employees home to work remotely.

Freed from the need to set foot outside of the house and seeing colleagues only through video messaging platforms, casual clothing quickly became the norm, even to the point of parody.

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Fringe Boutique remains open for in-person shopping but adjusted to focus on selling its unique ware online.

Paul Rainwater of Little Rock’s Q Clothier said the trend toward casual was accelerated by the pandemic.

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Trends toward casual don’t eliminate the need to look professional, clothiers say.

Months later, companies across the nation still navigate the process of returning to the workplace. With virus case numbers continuing to rise, it may be an ongoing challenge, even with the arrival of two vaccines. However, the one issue that is not going away is the impact of casual business dress.

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Haberdasheries like Q Clothier are selling an ambience in addition to the latest trends.

For Rainwater, this casual dress code is an ongoing trend that has been accelerated by the pandemic. He takes a historical perspective, pointing out that the American workplace has been steadily losing formality over the last century, going from formal wear in the office to the suit that has defined the 20th century office to the WordsWorth owner Lia Lent and employee more nebulous dress code ofFrederick today. McKindra have had steady business despite fewer customers in the store.

“At this very moment, a lot of men are trying to figure out what their future work environment is going to be.

It’s in flux right now. A lot of traditional, suit-wearing personnel are at home. They are trying to calculate, in the coming months and years, how are they going to be working,” Rainwater said. “The general way of saying it is that things are much more casual than they have ever been in the history of America.”

Will this trend toward casual continue? It’s a major question for Rainwater and others in his industry, who are charting these choppy waters together, trying to determine how the office dress code will be defined in the years to come.

“It remains to be seen, but I think the casual trend that has been going on for several years now, and the term ‘business casual,’ the casual part is stronger than ever. The business part is changing,” he said.

Rainwater isn’t the only one seeing this trend. In Northwest Arkansas, Osage Creek owner Mark Alldredge has been following it for years. Before starting Osage Creek, he worked at Walmart’s corporate office, where he saw everyday office wear shift to darkwashed blue jeans and a blazer for men, with sportcoats for meetings.

“It was already moving that way, and COVID sped that up. Once everybody starts going back to work, I would expect it to pop back some, not just for work but when people start going out to eat, etc.,” he said.

During the pandemic, loungewear has become increasingly popular for Alldredge’s clientele, but he expects a

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return to button-up shirts, polos and quarter-zip pullovers. As far as suits, Alldredge does not even sell them in

the store — although he can order them when necessary, mostly for weddings or funerals, he said.

Jeff Ladyman, the co-owner of Orville’s Men’s Store in Jonesboro, has noticed the same move toward the pullover and button-up style. His store has continued to sell suits even during the move toward more casual style, although the demand for full, custom

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suits has dropped.

“With things at hand, it’s more lowkey. Not a lot of people are getting into the suits and sportcoats,” Ladyman said. “A lot of these people are working from home and practicing safe distancing.

“Since the pandemic happened, not a lot of people are dropping money for custom suits. They are going toward the stock, program suits — that you can get nice fabric, a nice quality suit — for about half of the price.”

But as far as a return to the days of wearing sportcoats and slacks every day to the office? Allredge said “there’s not a chance” of seeing this return on a wide scale, as the winds of change have already been blowing these styles out of the offices and conference rooms across the state and nation.

While he doesn’t dispute the prevailing move toward casual, Rainwater isn’t writing off the more formal clothing of yesteryear. He contends that there will still be “pockets of dressiness” in the workplace, both out of necessity for special occasions and for those individuals who want to gain a special advantage through their clothing.

“It’s a strategic move for somebody to dress up. It has reversed. It used to be that when you were a rebel, you dressed casual. Now you are a rebel if you wear a full-on suit. There will be some guys, on purpose and by design, go dressy to set themselves apart. They will be considered the renegades; they will be considered the eye-catching-

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Osage Creek owner Mark Alldredge doesn’t see sportcoats and slacks returning to fashion anytime soon.

(Photos by Meredith Mashburn)

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Bolder colors and jeans are selling at stores like Osage Creek.

different ones because they’re not just wearing casual clothes. They’re dressing up,” he said.

This desire for men to set themselves apart is the biggest trend Alldredge has seen recently, although more are using color to make a statement. Men’s clothing colors have long trended towards the monochromatic blues, grays and blacks, but he is seeing increased risk-taking with color selection. The most popular color of sport coat at Osage Creek, according to Alldredge, is dark purple.

“It’s not boring. Everybody has a blue blazer. Everybody has a black blazer. They want something that has a little pop of color. Crazy socks are on trend. It’s different, and different is popular,” Alldredge said.

Bigger, bolder colors and patterns have also influenced the slightly more formal sportcoats. Looking back on his career, Rainwater sold mostly navy or gray sport coats, but he’s now getting JAN UA RY 2 02 1

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Business attire now is more low key, says Jeff Ladyman of Orville’s.

more requests for looks that likely would have raised eyebrows years ago. Customers are asking for greens, burgundies and light blues for their sport coats and blazers as well as bombastic patterns like large plaids.

“By far, the biggest trend in the sportcoats I’m selling are the big plaids. I’m selling window panes in plaids like it hasn’t been sold since the ’70s,” Rainwater said.

“People are ready because it’s more casual.

They are ready to have it be a little more colorful and bolder.”

While some men have enjoyed the freedom afforded by relaxed dress codes, others have leaned on experts, like Alldredge and Rainwater, to help them find that perfect medium ground.

Mr. Wicks: The Gentleman’s Shop in Little Rock is helping men out during the pandemic to create the “work from home wardrobe” that, as owner Mark Evans said, can make them look good while still being casual.

“That’s what we’re going to be doing this year. We want to tell guys, ‘Here’s how you can make a pair of pants and create seven different outfits.’ You can look professional, and you don’t have to look like you just rolled out of bed, but it’s comfortable and casual,” he said.

The danger of the casual look is the potential of appearing unprofessional. Evans has seen more men buying loungewear during the pandemic, but he has worked to ensure that these clothes work for them.

For him, the pandemic is not an opportunity for men to embrace their inner slob but to continue being trendsetters while being comfortable in their home offices.

“There has to be a level of professionalism in every style of dress. There needs to be a level of professionalism in guys wearing traditional suits, but there also needs to be that same level of professionalism in that man who wears casual clothing to work every day. They need to look professional,” Evans said.

No matter what men are wearing during the workday, these clothes perform the same function, according to Rainwater. They remain the frontline tools for men that allow them to influence others’ JA N UA RY 2021

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Orville’s and local stores like it cater to the latest trends but still accommodate the more classic look.

split-second perceptions of them.

For Rainwater, his job is getting men in the right clothes to accomplish their objective, whether that’s making the big pitch in the boardroom or an average day filling out Excel spreadsheets.

Anymore, it’s not enough to wear a suit to work every day or to toss all of your suits out and wear jeans and a polo. Modern office wear is much more fluid and adaptable to the needs of the wearer, according to Rainwater.

“If you only have jeans and nothing else, you’re not really prepared. But if you only have suits and nothing else, you’re not really prepared either. You’ve got to have both.

They’re tools, pieces of equipment,” Rainwater said.

Now, it’s all about choosing the right tool for the right situation. A ARM O NE YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

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WE HAVE YOUR

WORK FROM HOME WARDROBE

Mr. Wicks Gentleman’s Shop 5924 R St, Little Rock, AR 72207

mrwicks.com

SPORTS

RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN Change is coming to college football, and Arkansas stands to benefit

BY MARK CARTER

Fans tailgate at Razorback Stadium before a night game, pre-COVID.

A

s the Arkansas fanbase dusts off the dirt and debris accumulated after time served in the college football ditch, Razorback fans can find comfort in knowing that better days — and better paydays — are ahead.

Starting in 2024, ESPN’s Borg-like assimilation of college football — in the South, anyway — will be complete. The SEC and Disney announced a deal in December that will give ABC and ESPN exclusive broadcasting rights for SEC football and men’s basketball beginning in 2024. Anticipated for about a year, the deal could increase the SEC’s annual media-rights payouts to member schools by almost $20 million.

While financial terms weren’t disclosed, Sports Business Journal estimates the new deal to be worth more than $300 million annually. CBS had been paying about $55 million a year to broadcast the SEC’s feature game each week (otherwise known as the Nick Saban Show with your hosts, Verne and Gary) during the season. With the new deal, Arkansas and its SEC brethren should begin cashing checks from the league each year worth more than $60 million, up from just under $44 million in 2018.

As Arkansas football emerges from the aftermath of Bobby Petrino’s wild ride (I’m just gonna go ahead and lay

the past eight years at the feet of April 1, 2012), a brave new world is taking shape across college athletics with changes ahead in how college football, specifically, is delivered to the masses.

For the South’s favorite pastime, the financial driver of the college sports bus, things could get interesting soon.

Pre-pandemic, Power 5 schools were generating a collective $4 billion in revenue each year, from TV rights to ticket sales and all the ancillary commerce surrounding game days. That translated to roughly $27.5 million in football profit per school, according to Fortune. And Arkansas already was in damage control. Before COVID-19 landed on the national radar, the program was exorcising itself from the Chad Morris era and the drop in revenue that resulted from back-to-back 2-10, SEC-winless seasons.

In 2018, Arkansas athletics took in more than $137 million in revenue, as reported by USA Today based on NCAA data. (And even that reflected a drop in football ticket sales resulting from Bret Bielema’s hard crash in Fayetteville.)

Revenue dropped to $128 million and then for the fiscal year ending this past June, to $118 million. COVID’s impact has been felt, for sure, but not yet recorded. Sam Pittman’s ongoing resurgence will bring back those ticket buyers and donors who stepped away, but football’s troubles and the

looking for ways to make up lost revenue. College football remains one of the most valuable sports properties in the United States, and the clamor for content will increase as the pandemic fades and the sport can function without the limitations imposed by it.

Last year, Navigate Research of Chicago estimated for The Athletic what media-rights payouts to individual schools and media revenue for each P5 conference would look like in the decade ahead. It forecast the average annual payout to SEC schools would rise to $82.3 million by 2029, still shy of the Big 10’s average estimated payout of $89.4 million. The Big 12 (assuming it’s still around by 2029) is estimated to reach an average payout of $66.7 million in 2029, with the Pac 12

pandemic are having an impact.

Though spared the “hammer down”/COVID double whammy experienced on the Hill, Power 5 schools from the SEC to the Pac 12 are feeling the same pinch. Last summer, Stanford permanently dropped 11 varsity sports programs and reported a $70 million deficit in its athletics budget.

Arkansas remains in good shape, one of a handful of schools whose athletics department operates in the black. And Arkansas baseball now is one of a select few collegiate programs that turn a profit.

But football pays the bills. It’s not yet clear just how much money Power 5 schools will lose because of the limitations placed on the 2020 football season, but they will be

Playoff expansion to eight teams appears to be on the horizon for college football.

Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium was scheduled to host the 2021 college football national championship game on Jan. 11.

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The Sam Pittman-led resurgence of Arkansas football and bigger SEC paydays will offset the impact of the pandemic.

themselves. They essentially do this, anyway. The NCAA actually has nothing to do with administering the CFB playoff or bowl games. The wild popularity of March Madness — Investopedia estimates the organization made $933 million on the 2019 version when considering media rights, ticket sales, sponsorships and ads, most of it distributed to member schools across all levels — would likely keep the Power 5 in the fold for everything but football. Football is, of course, a different animal. It requires more players and thus more scholarships, more overhead, more everything.

Currently, 130 schools representing 10 conferences and a few football independents make up the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division 1, the highest level of competition for college football. The Power 5 entails half that number — 14 teams each in the SEC and Big 10, another 12 in the Pac 12, 10 teams in the Big 12 and 15 in the ACC. (Notre Dame is an ACC member in all sports but football. COVID dictated the Irish join for it too in 2020. Many expect that football affiliation to stick.)

With a few exceptions, the athletic budgets, fan bases, resources and facilities at P5 schools are bigger and more abundant than they are in the Group of 5, those FBS conferences such as the Sun Belt not included in the Power 5.

Power 5 athletic directors and school presidents are weary of deferring to Group of 5 interests when it comes to the NCAA administering rules that impact D-1 ball. Last fall, a Knight Commission survey of P5 schools revealed that 61 percent of ADs were in favor of creating a separate division under the auspices of the NCAA for the Power 5, while 44 percent of all D1 schools were in favor of the P5 actually breaking away from the NCAA. According to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, that comes out to 40 P5 schools wanting to break away and 15 percent of them against the creation of a new division for P5 schools

at $60.3 million and the ACC at $51.4 million.

Playoff expansion to eight teams appears to be on the horizon for college football as well. There’s simply too much money on the table for it not to expand, not to mention fans’ appetite for opening up more spots at the table.

Accounting for an eight-team playoff beginning in 2026, Navigate estimates annual media revenue for the Big 10 at $1.1 billion, followed closely by the SEC at $1 billion. Trailing far behind but still seeing significant increases would be the Pac 12 at $626 million, the ACC at $584 million and the Big 12 at $574 million.

For the 2019 fiscal year, P5 revenues totaled more than $2.9 billion, according to USA Today. The Big 10 and SEC, of course, led with $780 million and $721 million, respectively, followed by the Pac 12 ($530 million), the ACC ($455 million) and the Big 12 ($439 million).

Even with an increase of “only” $135 million or so a year, in the case of the Big 12, that extra money can help pay a lot of bills and fund worthy but unpopular spectator sports that operate with huge deficits.

Other factors to consider that likely will impact college football in the next few years include continued cord cutting, future conference realignment, the possibility of the Power 5 breaking away from the NCAA for football only and even new NCAA rules that allow players to benefit from the use of their names, images and likenesses.

ESPN has lost around 20 million cable subscribers over the past decade, and Sports Business Journal reported that Apple is interested in purchasing the tier 1 media rights to the Pac 12. (Media rights are broken down into three tiers; tier 1 essentially means first choice of games.)

Collective frustration with the NCAA regarding a number of issues, including its lack of leadership over COVID protocols, could push the 65 P5 schools to try and govern

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The Superdome in New Orleans is a regular college football playoff host.

only. Dodd further reported that a new division “would allow the Power Five to establish its own minimums for number of sports (currently at 16 per school) and scholarship (85 in football, 13 in men’s basketball) along with separate amateurism rules.”

The survey also reported “wide dissatisfaction with how Division-I college sports are run,” and “overwhelming support for major reform” of the NCAA. And as streaming services become more prevalent in how CFB is watched, P5 conferences likely are looking at expansion through a different lens as they position themselves to appear more attractive.

No longer will market or geography matter so much as will brand. Previous conference expansions revolved around brand to a degree but mostly were centered on how many viewers and alumni a school could deliver. (Think Rutgers and Maryland, the Big 10’s most recent additions, not known for football pedigree but able to deliver the New York and Washington/Baltimore markets.)

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stronger the brand, the more bidders for media rights. And the more bidders, well, hello supply and demand.

For several years, the idea of a 64-team, super-conference model entailing four, 16-team conferences at the top of the college athletics world has been floated. (Any such model would have to account for Notre Dame, of course.)

Texas almost left for the Pac 12 eight years ago, taking Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech with it. This Pac 12 almost-expansion to 16 teams was half an hour away from being official, it’s been widely reported. Instead, UT doubled down on the Big 12, which it essentially owns, and the Pac 12 has been fading in overall football relevancy since.

But as conferences jockey for negotiating power in the years ahead, could we revisit such a scenario? That’s what it would probably take to set off another round of expansion dominoes.

The Big 12 by its very name is something of the odd conference out at 10 teams and a footprint small by comparison to other P5 leagues. And its members hate Texas, which operates its own (albatross) Longhorn Network 86

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through ESPN and whose influence essentially governs the league. The Big 12 has 10 member schools and not 12 because four members finally were fed up with Bevo. Texas A&M uncoiled itself from state political ties and happily bolted to the SEC, where it fits, along with Missouri (not a cultural fit but the SEC had to add a 14th, and MU brings academic prestige and on paper, the St. Louis and Kansas City markets). Colorado took off for the Pac 12 where it shares a more “wine-and-cheese” sensibility, and Nebraska left for the Big 10, a complicated dynamic in its own right.

TCU and West Virginia then happily accepted invitations to the Power 5 when Texas came calling, and the league decided that splitting a conference-revenue pie 10 ways was plenty. (In actuality, the Big 12 eagerly would’ve expanded back to 12 if there had been two more available schools that it deemed suitable.)

UT and cronies taking off for the Pac 12 would set off a round of expansion probably resulting in something like the super-conference model, and might even leave current P5 schools like Baylor, Kansas State and Iowa State on the outside looking in.

Arkansas, meanwhile, is fortunate to ride the SEC gravy train, and membership certainly hasn’t hurt its overall branding efforts, recent football dip notwithstanding. Despite perhaps not having as many actual fans as some other programs — we’re still a small state, after all — fervent fan support and Hog fans’ penchant for representing their team in the most unexpected places across the globe cements the Razorback brand as one of the strongest in college sports. Arkansas consistently ranks among the top 15 for collegiate merchandise sales, was sixth in the number of vanity license plates sold as of 2018 and, no real surprise, last year came in at No. 4 on the list of Walmart’s top collegiate sellers.

(Our own SEC invitation involved several factors, foremost among them Texas declining an SEC invitation that included A&M. Next up was Arkansas, in 1990 a geographic fit and still a strong football brand, and Florida State. The Seminoles said no — Bobby Bowden admitted later he advised the school to decline because it was easier to win championships in the ACC — and South Carolina fit the bill. Nostalgia notwithstanding, Hog fans to this day should say thanks for the wisdom of Frank Broyles in recognizing the coming demise of the old Southwest Conference.)

Whatever the Power 5 ends up looking like (will next-up schools like BYU, Cincinnati or Houston ever crash the P5 gate?), don’t be surprised to see it breaking off this decade ARM O NE YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

Whatever the Power 5 ends up looking like, don’t be surprised to see it breaking off this decade for football only.

for football only. Such a move might cement the CFB playoff at four times for the foreseeable future, however. Expansion talk is largely fueled by undefeated Group of 5 teams such as Cincinnati this year being left out as well A&M, a one-loss team in the toughest conference. But conference expansion is a glacier, and playoff expansion appears to be gaining momentum.

The money may be too big to pass up. A.J. Maestas, founder and CEO of Navigate, told the Mercury News of San Jose, Calif., that his firm’s research found that an eight-team playoff would add 60 million viewers to the combined playoff audience and increase the payout from $467 million per year to $560 million, resulting in tens of millions being distributed to conferences. A 16-team playoff, he surmised, would generate $1.45 billion per year.

All this after the powers-that-be — the grafters who ran/run the bowl system (read Dan Wolkien’s Death to the BCS) — resisted a playoff for decades. Until the CFB playoff was instituted for the 2014 season, the sport remained the only one in the world that didn’t determine its champion by means of a true playoff.

But hey, bowl directors sure made bank.

Regarding the CFB playoff, Maestas wrote, “There are 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, which is the largest collection of teams or set of competitors in any league in the world by a multiple of four. With only four of those teams getting into the playoff (three percent), that’s an extremely large league with an extremely small playoff.”

An exclusive club, indeed. But does an undefeated American Athletic Conference champion with a soft strength of schedule deserve a playoff spot over a one-loss team coming out of the SEC grind? Many Group of 5 teams would welcome the opportunity to take on that grind.

The pandemic necessitated some temporary changes to the way we do college football. But real change is coming, whether it’s in the form of conference realignment, playoff expansion or even the way we watch our teams. And one thing’s for sure. Arkansas remains a passenger on the CFB gravy train.

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SPORTS

AFTER INFAMOUS SEASON WITH HOGS,

NICK STARKEL

FINDS SUCCESS IN SAN JOSE Former Razorback QB says previous UA staff tossed him out ‘like an old T-shirt’

BY EVIN DEMIREL

FOR THE MOST PART, NICK STARKEL DOESN’T DO NEGATIVITY.

That eternal sunshine disposition has held him in good stead, allowing him to make friends during so many moves.

Before graduating high school, Starkel had lived in eight cities in seven different states. In the last year and a half, he’s quarterbacked college football teams in three different states.

This last stop, at San Jose State, has gone particularly well.

In throwing for 1,906 yards, 16 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions and leading the Spartans to a 7-0 conference tear before a loss to Ball State in the Arizona Bowl, Starkel had the kind of bounce-back season he had hoped for at his last spot: Arkansas.

After a few years at Texas A&M, where he had lost a quar-

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Starkel says he chose Arkansas over SMU, Florida State and Ohio State.

terback battle to Kellen Mond, Starkel was ready to resurrect his career in Fayetteville under a new staff in 2019. Former Arkansas head coach Chad Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock had known Starkel from their days at SMU, and believed he offered good competition to their other incoming graduate-transfer quarterback, Ben Hicks.

Starkel said he chose to play the 2019 season in Arkansas over SMU, Florida State and Ohio State. (“Because Justin Fields got his eligibility. And so I said, ‘No, thank you.’”). From almost the very beginning, things didn’t go as he hoped.

“I was only there for one semester during the season,” he said in an interview with Malik Zaire. “I go in and I’m just there for pretty much fall camp. I get there right in fall camp and no one’s helping me learn the playbook. No one’s giving me extra time, and I’m working my tail off to try to learn this playbook.”

Despite the rocky start, for a while Starkel was enjoying life in Northwest Arkansas. But things changed in August 2019 when his best friend and former Aggie teammate, Luke Laufenberg, died of lymphoma. The loss gutted him. Keeping his trademark optimism flickering became harder than ever before.

“My relationship with football was not where I felt it needed to be,” Starkel later told The Athletic’s Kelli Wilson. “I liked

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“There is a lot of negativity in the world, and I could spend all day trying to defend myself to those people who are being negative, but at the end of the day, it’s not their life. It’s my life.” it when it was good, and I was hating it when it was bad… I just kind of felt that I was resenting it. I was counting the days until the season was over at one point. That’s toxic. As a leader, that’s super toxic to have on a team.”

Starkel’s personal issues might have been a reason that Hicks began the season as the starting quarterback, even though many players felt Starkel had outplayed him in the preseason.

“Many of the players and parents felt blindsided by Morris’s decision to start” Ben Hicks, according to Wilson, citing a source in the program. “They questioned whether the backand-forth between the two hurt Starkel’s confidence, resulting in out-of-character play that got him benched.” Wilson wrote the source added: “I’ve had several players say he played in those games nothing like he’s been playing in practice. They didn’t know if his confidence got shook or what.

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From Texas A&M (below) to San Jose State (left), Starkel’s college career has been a journey.

”For a brief shining moment, however, things seemed better.

Hicks struggled and Starkel started the third game of the season. Against Colorado State, Starkel put together an electrifying performance, throwing for 305 yards and three touchdowns in a win that made Arkansas 2-1. Turns out, that was the high point of the Chad Morris era.

After that win, Starkel and Morris led Arkansas players in a “Club Dub” celebration that looked worse and worse with each passing week. The next year, after Arkansas won its first SEC game since 2017, Hogs star linebacker Bumper Pool was asked about Club Dub. He called it, “unacceptable.”

Afterward, Starkel vowed to get serious. Real serious. Like throw-away-your-Justin-Bieber-shirt-and-never-look-back serious.

WORST LOSS IN ARKANSAS HISTORY The next game, a home tilt against San Jose State, ended up as the defining moment in the Arkansas tenures of both Starkel and Morris.

In 2019, San Jose State wasn’t nearly as good as it was in 2020. It was coming off a 1-11 season and would finish 5-7 overall. But, thanks to Starkel, its players made memories for a lifetime by knocking off an SEC team on the road.

Sure, Starkel finished with 356 yards and three touchdowns.

Yet he also threw five interceptions in the 31-24 loss.

“I had the worst game of my life in terms of throwing interceptions, but it was not a horrible, horrible game,” he said in May 2020. “I made some really good plays in that game. I lost the game, but I kept us in the game as well. I’m never going to say, ‘Oh, I did good and I lost,’ because I hate losing. I think it wasn’t acceptable. It was not enough. It was not acceptable at all. But after that game, the coaches lost a lot of their faith in me.”

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‘TOSSED OUT LIKE AN OLD T-SHIRT’ Within a few weeks, Nick Starkel was feeling like the old Bieber shirt he had just tossed out.

He hurt his elbow against his old team, Texas A&M, the following week but was able to start the next game against Kentucky. Halfway through the third quarter, Starkel had completed just seven of 19 passes for 41 yards. Still, Arkansas was up 13-10 when Morris decided to pull him and put in Hicks instead.

Arkansas ended up losing 24-20.

“We were winning — and they bench me,” Starkel recalled.

“Hey, coaches don’t owe you anything. It just goes back to that.

If you’re not producing at the level that they think you should be producing at, they’re going to find someone to replace you.

The harsh reality of college football is that they don’t owe you anything. Even if you’re giving your all, it’s sometimes not enough for them.”

After that, Starkel got into only two more games. Against

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heavyweights Alabama and LSU, he completed eight of 29 total passes. But Morris and Craddock never started him again.

“It was their way of saying, ‘Hey, we’re done with you,’” Starkel said in the days leading up to Ball State’s beatdown of SJSU in the Arizona Bowl. “It was like throwing out an old toy or an old T-shirt that you used to love. And that hurt. That hurt me. I had put so much blood, sweat and tears into that team, into that coaching staff and into that program.”

Starkel, of course, wasn’t the only Razorback struggling under Morris and Craddock. It was no surprise that he chose to transfer again after the season considering the program’s coaching upheaval.

He did talk to new Hogs coach Sam Pittman about potentially staying. Said Pittman, “He came to talk to me twice, and he just decided that he wanted to move on after our conversations. We wish him the best, and that’s pretty much it.”

“I had to face the music,” Starkel told The Athletic. “I had a rough year. A coach comes in who’s going to go get a transfer; we have a small quarterback room. Just by pure numbers, you’ve got to go get another guy. Not being the guy, and a coach bringing in someone who’s technically their guy and is exactly what they want — they’re not going to go recruit someone they don’t like.

“I saw that was probably the end of the line for me.”

In the end, all the transferring worked out for everybody involved not named Ben Hicks.

Pittman found his own graduate-transfer quarterback Feleipe Franks, who only delivered the most accurate passing season in program history. He almost certainly performed better than a more clear-minded Starkel would have. And Franks, who is too much of a man to ever allow himself to be photographed wearing talismanic Justin Bieber apparel, has

“Hey, coaches don’t owe you anything. It just goes back to that.

If you’re not producing at the level that they think you should be producing at, they’re going to find someone to replace you.” also served as a great teacher and role model to young Arkansas quarterbacks KJ Jefferson and Malik Hornsby.

Starkel, meanwhile, rediscovered at the mid-major level the mojo he’d flashed as an Aggie freshman, where he’s now a better fit. He loves it so much he’s going to stay for a sixth year in 2021 and try to lead San Jose State to back-to-back Mountain West Conference championships.

He’s no longer in a place where he’s disappointing Razorback fans and Justin Bieber alike. He’s now in a place where coaches go through the trouble of reviewing playbooks with him. And he again feels like he has a group of folks in his corner who will fight for him.

“There is a lot of negativity in the world, and I could spend all day trying to defend myself to those people who are being negative, but at the end of the day, it’s not their life. It’s my life.

It’s my journey and I’m happy,” he told Wilson.

“I’m just thankful that I can still play ball.”

[Editor’s note: This story ran previously at BestofArkansasSports.com.]

Starkel flashed mojo early on at A&M, and this past season led the Spartans to a conference title.

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The J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center Opens in Springdale

A ‘‘

BY KATIE ZAKRZEWSKI

Investing in conservation education is a vital role of our conservation, but we also have to carefully balance that with the investment in managing fish and wildlife and providing recreational opportunities for the public. ”

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“Investing in conservation education is a vital role of our mission, but we also have to carefully balance that with the investment in managing fish and wildlife and providing recreational opportunities for the public.” — Bobby Martin, Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioner The J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center, which officially opened with a ribbon-cutting on Dec. 9 in Springdale, is a major endeavor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) that will serve as a launching point for people in Northwest Arkansas to experience the natural world, learn about conservation and enjoy outdoor recreation.

The 32,000-square-foot facility, located on about 61 acres at 3400 N. 40th St., is home to many family-friendly activities. Visitors can see live displays of wildlife; interact with high-tech exhibits; participate in a variety of educational activities; practice skills at an indoor archery range, at the BB gun marksmanship center or the extensive outdoor 3D archery range; relax and mingle at the facility’s outdoor pavilions, which will also serve as classrooms; and take a walk on the center’s nature trail.

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public and private partnership that helped cover the $20.1 million total cost. With increasing demands in financing its many conservation projects, the AGFC worked on an idea of a Northwest Arkansas nature center with the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, which brought in new partners to bring the project to life over the past five years. A $5 million pledge from the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt family of Rogers encouraged donations from many organizations working through the Foundation.

The land for the center, valued at $3.2 million, originally belonged to the Springdale Water and Sewer District and was donated to the City of Springdale, which in turn offered it to the AGFC on the condition it be used for conservation and education.

More than $14 million in private funding, land donations and federal grants were secured.

“Having a nature center in Northwest Arkansas has been one of those agency goals that has been on the table for a long time,” AGFC commissioner Bobby Martin says.

“Investing in conservation education is a vital role of our conservation, but we also have to carefully balance that with the investment in managing fish and wildlife and providing recreational opportunities for the public.”

Martin compared the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center with the four other AGFC nature centers and five conservation centers around The Natural State: “More than half a million people travel through the AGFC nature centers annually. These facilities offer a valuable and crucial conservation education interactive experience. The J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center is modeled after the very best of all the other centers. We have used decades of experience running these facilities ARM O NE YA ND P O L I T I C S .COM

to design a state-ofthe-art facility that is a gateway to the outdoors.”

In addition to the indoor shooting and archery ranges and outdoor trails, the new nature center has a 2,000-gallon aquarium, classrooms and office space, while outside the walls there is a 25-acre prairie restoration area, native plant gardens, the 3D archery range, frontage along Spring Creek and the Razorback Regional Greenway, which soon will run right by the center’s back door.

“These expansions allow us to host more outdoor skills and conservation training courses onsite,” Martin says. “We hope that it becomes a hub for the conservation community.”

The center charges no admission fee, but the AGFC has instituted a number of safety protocols that will remain in place for the foreseeable future. Restricted free ticketed entrance for visitors will ensure that capacity requirements are met to allow for proper social distancing. All exhibits have sanitation stations and are regularly cleaned by staff, and the facility has a rigorous daily cleaning protocol. These precautions will not limit a visitor’s experience.

Conservation of the state’s resources and educating the citizens to practice better conservation practices are the main mission of the AGFC, and the creation of nature centers such as Springdale’s new facility plays a vital role in that effort. For more than 100 years, the agency has overseen the protection, conservation and preservation of fish

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and wildlife in Arkansas. An essential part of ensuring healthy wildlife populations involves people. Agency programs geared toward the public generate awareness of ethical and sound management principles.

The goal of the nature center is to connect Arkansans to conservation through exhibits and interactive programming.

Exhibits like the one that highlights Walmart’s Acres for America program bring awareness to conservation leadership and efforts happening right in our backyards.

Walmart’s Acres for America program stands as the leading public-private land conservation partnership in the country.

“Healthy societies, resilient economies and thriving businesses rely on nature to provide food, products and services,” Hunter Hart, vice president, realty, of Walmart U.S. says. “Over the past 16 years, Walmart’s Acres for America program has helped conserve more than 1.6 million acres, protecting critical wildlife habitat and offering local communities Walmart serves every day increased public access to enjoy the outdoors.”

The exhibit dedicated to this achievement involving the Bentonville-based world retailer is one of the crown jewels at the new nature center. After learning about the program, visitors can walk just a few feet away and discover how they can visit some of these conserved lands or how they can volunteer with other conservation programs.

The ribbon has been cut and the doors are open to a facility several years in the making, one that should provide decades of connection to the outdoors not only for the residents of Northwest Arkansas, but visitors who come from around the nation to the region. For more information on the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center and how to schedule a visit, go to www.agfc.com.

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HEALTH CARE/CONSTRUCTION

HEALTH CARE INVESTMENT STRIVING TO MEET DEMANDS

POPULATION GROWTH DICTATES NEW CONSTRUCTION, ESPECIALLY IN NWA

BY ANG E LA FOR SYT H

Health care providers in Arkansas have been hard-pressed over the last several years to keep up with the growing need for services, especially in Northwest Arkansas. Studies in populations trends, community health outcomes and limits in access to care have clearly shown a tremendous need for significant medical expansion in nearly all medical fields.

The state’s top medical leaders have stepped up in the last few years to serve this growing need. In the last year, major investments in medical technology and infrastructure have been made, including projects by Highlands Oncology, Washington Regional, Mercy and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Highlands Oncology Group (HOG)

In September of 2020, Highlands Oncology Group opened its doors at its HOG Parkway Medical Building off Interstate 49 in Springdale. The newly constructed tower is a beautiful, sleek five-story building measuring 125,000 square feet on eight acres of land. Located at Don Tyson Parkway and Gene George Boulevard, the building was designed by architect Crafton Tull and engineer Tatum Smith Welcher with general contractor C.R. Crawford. Highlands has plans for a gradual transition in which most departments will be in place by spring.

“The Northwest Arkansas region is showing no signs of slowing population growth,” Highlands CEO Jeff Hunnicutt says. “This positions Highlands Oncology to continue providing excellent care to patients locally for the foreseeable future.”

Highlands, which originated in 1996, is one of the largest and most advanced community oncology groups in the United States. According to HOG spokesman Joel Nunneley of The Nunneley Group, Highlands is “committed to growing to offer advanced treatment options, multi-disciplinary cancer teams and industry leading cancer research to patients in the NWA region and beyond.”

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With the group’s largest construction project yet, Highlands Oncology is adding multiple services under one roof for patient convenience. The new facility promises pleasing aesthetics along with its world-class care in a highly comfortable and comforting space. Nunneley said patients have been very pleased once they have experienced the new building and level of care.

Washington Regional

To keep pace with Northwest Arkansas’ rapid growth, Fayetteville’s Washington Regional continues to make strategic investments in advanced technology and facilities. The group’s four-year, $73 million Core Renewal Project — which expanded several departments — was completed in early 2020.

Improvements completed this year included additional perioperative rooms, a 16-bed cardiac progressive unit now being utilized as an ICU that could care for COVID-19 or other patients. Washington Regional operationalized a newly constructed 15,250-square-foot lab with new automated hematology and chemistry analyzers and new systems to perform meningitis, GI blood-culture panels and diagnostics for infectious diseases. Several platforms for COVID testing have also been incorporated.

The hospital’s newest construction project is the J.B. Hunt Transport Services Cancer Support Home. Located in Fayetteville, the new center is expected to be complete in early 2021. It will provide the same services as the current Washington Regional Cancer Support Home, but with additional amenities including eight overnight guest rooms with private bathrooms, an expanded wing and prosthesis boutique and an elevator for accessibility. Overnight lodging and all support home services will continue to be available at no cost to cancer patients and their families, easing the burdens of a cancer diagnosis.

Mercy

Completed at the end of 2019, Mercy invested $277 million into an expan-

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HOG’s new five-story facility in Springdale opened in the fall.

sion that included a seven-story tower addition to its Rogers hospital, a new multispecialty clinic with a 24-hour ER in Springdale and six other new clinics. The centerpiece of the Mercy expansion is the $147 million, tower that increases capacity from 200 beds to 300 plus beds. The expansion brought 1,000 new jobs including 100 physicians to Northwest Arkansas.

At 63,000 square feet, the new Mercy clinic in Springdale is its largest in Northwest Arkansas, featuring primary and specialty care and a 24-hour ER just off Interstate 49. Mercy Springdale initially added more than two dozen primary care and specialty physicians to an underserved area of Springdale and plans to add more over time. The facility also includes a 22,000-squarefoot emergency room featuring 12 exam rooms, a trauma room, two triage rooms, an isolation room for infectious diseases and three rooms for behavioral health patients. A helipad on site allows for critical care transports to Mercy Hospital in Rogers and other facilities.

Mercy Hospital President Eric Pianalto, a native of nearby Tontitown, noted that the clinic’s proximity to his hometown deepens the meaning of Mercy’s effort to increase access to health care in the area. “The people we will be caring for are my family, my friends and neighbors. That makes the work very personal,” he said at the unveiling of the new Springdale clinic.

In a joint effort, UAMS, Arkansas Children’s and Baptist Health are working together to develop and operate the proton therapy center on UAMS’ Little Rock campus. This advanced type of therapy is a highly sophisticated radiation-based technology for cancer treatment that has the capability to deliver safer, high-dose radiation to cancer patients compared to traditional X-ray radiation treatment. It is widely used to treat children with cancer, as children are particularly sensitive to the effects of radiation therapy.

It’s been a busy year for UAMS. Over the summer, the university also opened a new Health Women’s Center in Midtown Little Rock just off Interstate 630. All women’s health services from its two other clinics moved to this building to provide women with one centralized location for various needs.

The Women’s Center building features 46 exam rooms, eight ultrasound rooms and a dedicated patient education space.

More projects are in the works, including a $150 million energy project that features a new $49 million electrical power plant. Once completed, the project is estimated to result in $4.8 million in savings annually. The energy project will enable UAMS to address $101 million in maintenance needs and install energy efficient measures. In the end, UAMS’ energy efficiency ranking will be in the top 1 percent of all academic medical centers in the United States.

“Moving forward with this work, we are seeing to the health of the university’s physical plant, so UAMS can continue to focus vigorously on the health of Arkansans, the education of its students and the innovation of its researchers,” UAMS Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson told Arkansas Money & Politics.

“Part of our responsibility is being a good steward of the public’s dollars and of our finances in the most efficient way. This will help us do that.”

UAMS

UAMS has been making great strides to further develop its cancer treatment options. The university recently added an additional location for radiation therapy at the Baptist Health Medical Center - North Little Rock.

It also opened a new state-of-the-art center for chemotherapy at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and is working steadily to bring the first proton therapy center to the state.

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JA N UA RY 2021

THE LAST WORD

THE MEANING OF TRUTH

T

he attendance officer smirked at the boy who had come to school late.

The boy shifted his feet as he explained that the blowout had scared him, and he demonstrated with an invisible steering wheel how he had fought to keep the car on the street. He avoided death and destruction thanks to quick thinking and cat-like reflexes.

“It’s amazing no one was hurt,” the boy said, puffing his chest as if waiting for a medal to be pinned upon it.

The attendance officer rubbed his bald head with one hand and folded his other arm across his chest. The smirk never left his face.

“A blowout, huh?”

“Yes, sir. A very dangerous one.”

“You had to change your tire, right?”

“Yes, sir. Mr. Lawson taught us how in Drivers Ed. Took a lot to get the grease and dirt off my hands,” he said, turning his outspread palms over and back again.

“So you had to put one of those little doughnut spare tires on it?”

The boy paused for an instant, sensing danger but knowing that hesitation was weakness.

“Yes, one of those little embarrassing spare tires. I’m going to get it fixed as soon as school is out. The guys are really making fun of me about it.”

He laughed nervously.

The attendance officer stood up and walked from behind the desk. “That’s great, son. Really great. Let’s go check out your handiwork. I want to see this spare tire of yours.”

The boy didn’t flinch. He walked beside the older man down the long hallway leading to the back parking lot and opened the glass door, holding it for the

JAN UA RY 2 02 1

BY STEVE STRAESSLE

attendance officer. They walked down the sidewalk shoulder to shoulder and onto the asphalt of the lot. They passed row after row of cars in silence. The boy moved forward deliberatively, as if leading a procession.

Finally, he arrived at a submarine-sized silver station wagon. The attendance officer folded his arms. The boy took a deep breath and said, “Obviously, I didn’t think you’d walk all the way back here. I didn’t have a flat. I lied.”

The attendance officer smirked again.

“No kidding.”

I was thinking about that incident recently after witnessing one of the final sunrises of 2020 on a run down Kavanaugh Boulevard. My breath rose visibly as I shuffled through leaf-strewn sidewalks.

Christmas wreaths still clung to some doors, and a few stray ribbons and bows littered the street. But the sunrise spoke of newness and the chill brought the senses alive. It’s almost time to start again. I could hear the songs on my Spotify account switch and listened to a refrain from the Avett Brothers. I heard, “Tell the truth to yourself, and the rest will fall in place.”

What a great line to end one year and start the next. Truth is a heavy word, one soaked in depth and meaning. It’s also among the most important core characteristics we must form, hold onto and foster. A person’s integrity must be on full display at all times. Because, at its essence, that’s truth.

Moving deliberately from the lasting stings of 2020, we can help our employees, our clients, our community most by taking a few moments of self-reflection.

For some, the economic pause gave permission for a pause in common sense, an excuse to act in a manner beneath expectations. Did I do that? Did I give into the

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disconnect and allow it to separate me from my soul? But then comes the action associated with self-reflection: how to correct the command and control within me, how to advance my own best qualities in the name of others, in the name of the institution that is greater than self.

At the beginning of any worthwhile endeavor, strong leaders take a moment to gather themselves, to employ introspection. Doing so allows one to enjoy the fruits of self-reflection and explore further that which makes us unique, different from our competitors, apart from those who refuse to do the work. Within that self-reflection, we find the courage to overcome challenges and the vision to do more, to be more. In turn, this allows us to uncover the greatest attributes within our organization, those that pull us to advance our purpose.

As we take our first steps into the New Year, we embrace the truths in our lives, in our work and in each other. A year is new only for a short time. But during that span, we can promise to use everything in our power to augment those core characteristics that make us, well, us.

Because, in doing so, we find the meaning of truth. A

Steve Straessle is the principal of Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock.

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