Arkansas Money & Politics January 2023

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FEATURES JANUARY 2023

ROYAL FLUSH

While every industry is facing the challenges of the day, Arkansas’s casinos nevertheless seem to have hit a lucky streak.

GETTING OUR DUCKS IN A ROW

Stuttgart is proudly called the Duck Hunting Capital of the World, but there will have to be some changes if it’s going to stay that way.

THE ART OF THE MEAL

A recently released short documentary shows how Jacques & Suzanne single-handedly expanded Little Rock’s culinary culture.

Influencers of the Year

These influencers are the movers and shakers behind some of the biggest changes in our state.

By AMP Staff

And Justice for All

Judge Tjuana Byrd Manning understands that it takes a village to raise a child, and she’s determined to make sure every child has the community support they need.

By Dwain Hebda

SPORTS

By Mark

HISTORY & POLITICS

After serving in the mountains of Afghanistan and the halls of Capitol Hill, Austin Booth is leading the charge for Natural State conservation.

By John Calahan

From the bottom of the hill to the top, then on to the next, Gary Head makes his own way.

By John Calahan

Whether teaching or learning, Dean Matt Waller was made for the world of business.

By John Calahan

VISIONARIES

Though the legendary Coy’s Steak House went up in flames over a decade ago, its legacy, and perhaps something more, still remains.

By Katie Zakrzewski

STARTUPS

From the former titan of Alltel Wireless to the new giant of Westrock Coffee, Joe T. Ford has left a footprint on Arkansas that few can match.

By Dwain Hebda

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

Heather Baker | hbaker@armoneyandpolitics.com

EDITOR AT-LARGE

Dwain Hebda

EDITORIAL OPERATIONS MANAGER

Jessica Everson | jeverson@armoneyandpolitics.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Sarah Coleman | scoleman@armoneyandpolitics.com

MANAGING DIGITAL EDITOR Kellie McAnulty | kmcanulty@armoneyandpolitics.com

ONLINE WRITER

Kilee Hall | khall@armoneyandpolitics.com

STAFF WRITERS

John Callahan | jcallahan@armoneyandpolitics.com Sarah Coleman | scoleman@armoneyandpolitics.com Mak Millard | mmillard@armoneyandpolitics.com Katie Zakrzewski | katie@armoneyandpolitics.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mike Bedgood | mbedgood@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 Amanda Moore | amoore@armoneyandpolitics.com Colleen Gillespie | colleen@armoneyandpolitics.com Lisa Stroud | lstroud@armoneyandpolitics.com

As cultural links grow between South Korea and the United States, economic ties grow alongside them, linking Arkansas to the East-Asian business hub.

By Caleb Talley

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.

New Name, Image, and Likeness changes may have been necessary to some degree, but the world of college sports has been left in chaos.

Carter

Captain of Conservation Friends in High Places Born for the Business

This Walls Could Talk

Joe T. Ford

Gary Cheatham

The top sprinter in the United States, Shawnti Jackson, has signed a letter of intent to join the Arkansas Razorbacks program.

Morning Mayhem member RJ Hawk announced on Tuesday, Dec. 27. that he would be leaving the popular radio morning show.

LEADING THE WAY

Influencers come in many shapes and sizes. Influencers can be mentors, CEOs and 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 third annual class of AMP Influencers of the Year. These leaders of Arkansas industry and politics were nominated by AMP readers and ultimately selected by our 2022 board of advisors, made up of members of last year’s AMP Influencers.

This year’s impressive class showcases Arkansas professionals leading by example. They include our state’s historic new chief executive Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Legacy Capital President Matt Jones; Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Director Austin Booth; Circuit Judge Tjuana Byrd Manning and our former Lieut. Governor and new Attorney General Tim Griffin. These honorees represent just a sample of the impressive leadership displayed in the 2023 class.

Also inside, we are happy to provide a look at the Arkansas Hospital Association as Bo Ryall gives us an informed perspective of the financial challenges facing Arkansas’s hospitals in the new year. Aces are high in Arkansas’s gaming industry, and we talk to executives with Saracen Casino, Southland Casino Hotel, Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort and the forthcoming Legends Resort and Casino to learn what’s next for the state’s casinos.

We also take a trip down memory lane to revisit the bygone Jacques & Suzanne, the subject of a new independent documentary and the restaurant that represented a turning point in fine dining in The Natural State.

A special congratulations to Sarah Huckabee Sanders elected first woman governor of Arkansas and to the 94th Arkansas General Assembly as they begin work in the 2023 legislative session. A special acknowledgement to RJ Hawk who is serving his first term in the Arkansas House. As a regular guest on The Buzz with the Morning Mayhem crew, David Bazzel, RJ Hawk, Roger Scott and Justin Moore, I’ve gotten to know Hawk and wish him well on his new journey.

Thank you for reading these and the many more stories in this issue of Arkansas Money & Politics. Send us any breaking news or press releases to press@aymag.com and shoot any stories my way at hbaker@aymag.com.

Heather Baker, President & Publisher

hbaker@aymag.com

heatherbaker_ar

TOP CHALLENGES FACING HOSPITALS

By Bo Ryall, President/CEO Arkansas Hospital Association

Hospitals in Arkansas, and indeed throughout the U.S., are facing a financial crisis. It can be difficult to grasp why this industry, in particular, needs specific and immediate relief and why that involves legislation, changes in rulemaking, and constant advocacy efforts at the local, regional, state and national levels. What’s much easier to understand is that if any of our hospitals were to collapse under this mounting pressure, it would put the health of our state – its economy and its people – at risk. The following Q&A is meant to offer some context on this complex and increasingly dire situation.

Why are hospitals experiencing financial difficulties?

It is as simple as expenses outpacing revenues. You can say that all businesses are experiencing this right now to some extent, but unlike other businesses, hospitals cannot simply raise prices and pass expense increases along to consumers. Hospitals are paid by Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance, and those reimbursements have, for the most part, remained stagnant while labor and supply costs have significantly increased.

Is it a management problem?

No. With expenses increasing and revenue remaining stable, the challenge becomes what expenses to cut. Hospital costs consist largely of salaries; more than half of a hospital’s expenses fall under compensating the health care workers who provide care to patients. If a hospital were to

reduce the number of nurses employed, for example, that would mean fewer beds available for patients. With flu, COVID and RSV reaching peak levels this fall, the result of these types of reductions would equate to reduced bed capacity statewide for sicker patients.

Other possible reductions could include cutting unprofitable lines of service, such as labor and delivery or rural health clinics. Cuts like these have an overwhelmingly detrimental impact on health care access. Arkansas currently has fewer than 40 hospitals operating labor and delivery departments, and that number continues to decrease. Driving hundreds of miles to deliver a baby or to access prenatal care will inevitably have a negative impact on the health of mothers and newborns.

Similarly, closing rural health clinics may save money in the short run, but these cuts also limit preventive care which

in turn results in sicker patients who develop diabetes, suffer heart attacks and strokes or succumb to other illnesses.

Are hospitals in danger of closing?

The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform issued a report last November that identified 22 rural Arkansas hospitals (46%) at risk of closing, and six hospitals at risk of immediate closure. It’s clear that Arkansas’s health care industry is not only facing cutting services and bed capacity, but is also in danger of shuttering locations altogether, the victims of sustained financial losses on patient services reimbursement and low financial reserves.

Why have labor costs increased?

Health care was already experiencing a workforce shortage prior to the pandemic, but the last couple of years have greatly

intensified the pressure of this shortage. Nurses, for example, have retired, moved on to non-bedside care or changed professions altogether. Some nurses have embraced the flexibility of the travel nurse industry, which has contributed to increased costs for hospitals to attract and retain qualified help.

With the bar raised on expenses, and no evidence that the workforce shortage will ease on its own, Arkansas must act. Our state must invest in attracting members of the next-generation workforce to choose health care as a profession. That means increasing pay for our nurse educators, providing more opportunities for students to attend nursing schools, offering loan forgiveness and raising awareness of health care careers to middle and high school students.

What are the solutions to the hospital financial crisis?

For hospitals to continue to serve patients and communities, there must be payment reform. Consider the following:

• Medicaid and the Arkansas General Assembly must appropriate more funding to hospital rates to correct the inequity of paying hospitals significantly below the cost of providing care.

Hospitals have not received an increase

in the rate of reimbursement for providing care to Medicaid patients in decades. In fact, the last time Medicaid outpatient rates were changed was in 1992, and that was a reimbursement decrease. That is 32 years without a favorable rate adjustment, despite the reality that costs – and the shift toward utilizing outpatient care – have increased considerably over this time.

Rates of reimbursement for inpatient care have not seen an increase since 2007, when it was raised to $850 a day. This daily rate includes all care, including costly procedures like heart bypass or hip replacement, yet Medicaid reimburses hospitals $850 a day rather than the full cost of the procedure.

• Congress desperately needs to step in and correct the inadequacies of the Area Wage Index.

Medicare payments in Arkansas are woefully low. The main cause is the Area Wage Index, which rewards states that pay higher wages and penalizes more efficient, smaller states like Arkansas.

• Commercial insurers must do their part.

Some commercial insurers have adjusted payments to account for inflation, but others have not stepped up. All commercial insurers must address the increased costs of treating their policy holders, not

by raising premiums, but by investing dollars in the health care providers treating patients.

• Laws and regulations are needed to protect seniors from gaps and loopholes in Medicare Advantage plans.

Medicare Advantage companies advertise plans to seniors as a cost-saving solution to reduce out-of-pocket expenses, but when it comes down to paying for care, they excel at erecting barriers to payments. Paying hospitals and physicians below Medicare rates is unacceptable, and denying care or payment for service by using a prior authorization system causes even more harm.

We continue to see Medicare Advantage patients “hotel” at hospitals because plans will not authorize transfer of care to a post-acute setting, such as rehabilitation, acute-care hospital or a nursing home. Laws and regulations are needed to ensure these plans allow seniors to receive care without prior authorization barriers and to not financially punish hospitals and physicians for providing that care.

Hospitals have demonstrated their profound commitment to our state throughout the pandemic by expanding bed capacity and staff numbers to treat patients during COVID surges. At the same time, they continued to provide trauma care and service everyday health care needs.

Arkansas’s hospitals also contribute to the economy statewide by directly and indirectly employing more than 90,000 workers and generating $15.2 billion in economic impact. These numbers are not minor contributions to a state that needs a strong health care system and a strong economy. Hospitals are asking for assistance so that we may continue, according to our mission, to protect access to outstanding health care for all Arkansans, now and in the future.

THE ROLLER COASTER ECONOMY:

What is in Store for 2023?

By Michael R. Pakko, Ph.D., Chief Economist and State Economic Forecaster, Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI)

It seems like the economy has been a roller coaster ride recently, and the ride isn’t over yet. Just like on a roller coaster, our current momentum is driven by the hills, valleys, twists and turns that have brought us to this point. To get a sense of what is yet to come, we need to look back at how we got here.

The great COVID Contraction was the precipitating “shock” to the economy — the initial harrowing plunge of the roller coaster. Suddenly, large swaths of the economy simply shut down. Businesses were closed, workers were idled, and consumer spending dropped precipitously. With service-providing sectors particularly hard hit, we saw a significant shift in spending patterns with the demand for goods holding up better than for services. This was one major way in which the COVID Contraction did not fit the mold of a typical recession. The spending categories most affected by an economic downturn are usually goods-producing, particularly durable goods.

One reason Arkansas fared better than other parts of the nation is our state is less dependent on service-providing industries than most. By nearly every measure — including production, employment and consumer spending — Arkansas’s economy is relatively skewed toward goods. As a result, the shutdown of services had a smaller impact here than elsewhere.

But at the same time the economy’s productive capacity was plunging, the response of fiscal and monetary policy added strength to demand. In the second quarter of 2020, U.S. GDP declined at a 30% annual rate. During the same period, the CARES Act, a set of government programs to compensate American consumers and business for their losses, ended up resulting in a 34% rate of increase in personal income. A second round of COVID relief/stimulus in late 2020, and a third round at the beginning of 2021, added even more momentum to short-term income growth.

Here in Arkansas, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Federal Pandemic Relief Programs contributed nearly $11 billion to the personal incomes of Arkansans in 2020, and another $9.4 billion in 2021. Those figures represent 7.7% and 6.1% of income from all sources in those two years, respectively.

Moreover, in a state that has among the lowest costs of living in the nation, every dollar in stimulus had a relatively larger impact here than in higher-cost regions.

Not surprisingly, consumer spending rebounded across the nation, and particularly so in Arkansas. It took several months for consumer spending to recover nationwide, but the evidence suggests Arkansas consumer spending had returned to pre-pandemic levels well before the end of 2020. In fact, Arkansas is one of only a handful of states that experienced a net increase in personal consumption expenditures in 2020, and we continued to outpace the national growth rate in 2021. As sales tax collections indicate, retail sales rebounded faster in Arkansas and have continued to trend above the national growth rate. In the face of rising prices in 2022, consumer spending growth has slowed, but remains well above pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, monetary policy was greasing the tracks of our accelerating roller coaster ride in 2020-21. Following a zero-interest rate policy and doubling down on quantitative easing, the already-stimulative fiscal policy was accommodated by unprecedented money creation. Economic scales were already out of kilter with the goods/services imbalance, and now, newly lubricated with fiscal and monetary stimulus, we began to feel the ride shuddering with supply chain breakdowns, labor shortages and price spikes. It felt like the wheels were coming off.

In hindsight, the resulting round of accelerating inflation seems inevitable. Across much of the nation, consumer demand was suppressed by harsher lockdowns than here in Arkansas, so it took some time. But eventually, unleashing pent-up consumer demand, combined with ongoing supply disruptions, was a sure-fire recipe for price pressures to emerge. The monetary policy response to the pandemic had paved the way for a potentially chronic acceleration of inflation.

Predictably, the Federal Reserve hit the brakes in 2022. Starting from near zero at the beginning of the year, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate to above 4% with further increases likely in 2023. The roller coaster is heading down the final stretch of the ride,

and the Fed’s goal is to tap the brakes just enough to coast to a smooth stop at the station without crashing into a recession.

Achieving this so-called “soft landing” is a difficult prospect under any circumstances, but particularly problematic on our present roller coaster ride. The Fed started from zero, a position that was arguably behind the curve by early 2022, and the rapid pace of interest rate hikes over the course of the year reflected an effort to catch up.

Rising interest rates will undoubtedly slow the economy. The question is, will it inevitably result in a recession? There is good reason to believe that if there is a recession, it will be relatively mild. Labor markets have maintained strength with record-low unemployment and healthy job growth. In fact, employers report ongoing difficulty with finding workers to fill available jobs. The most problematic aspect of a recession — widespread unemployment — seems a distant prospect.

My personal forecast is momentum of consumer spending will have carried us through the end of 2022, but the economy is likely to slip into a modest recession in the first half of 2023. While mild, this recession will follow a more normal pattern than the COVID Contraction. Higher interest rates will have their most significant impact on business investment as well as consumer purchases of homes, automobiles and durable goods. In this regard, the skew of the Arkansas economy toward goods, rather than services, might be exacerbating factor.

Of course, with every roller coaster ride, there could be a hidden curve or drop ahead we’re not yet seeing. Shocks to the economy can come from unexpected sources, and any forecast has to recognize that fundamental uncertainty. At this point, however, it looks like it might be a rough ride into the station, but I don’t see our roller coaster careening off the tracks.

FORECASTING THE FUTURE AT METROPLAN

By Jonathan Lupton, Senior Planner for Publications-AICP, Metroplan

Demographic analysis is powerful because it gives a window on the future. Metroplan is a regional planning agency that makes forecasts for central Arkansas. While our main task is transportation planning, our projections are used by private sources and government agencies, including water utilities, city and county governments, and even the Central Arkansas Library System. We have a pretty good track record for accuracy. For example, in the early 1990s, we did a forecast for regional population in 2010 that turned out low by just 2.2 percent. Yet things are always in flux, and projecting the future is never easy.

Metroplan forecasts the four-county Little Rock region will grow from about 720,000 residents in 2020 to about 866,000 by 2050. That’s a population gain of about 146,000 people, or 20 percent growth — about 0.6 percent per year. Saline County will grow fastest within the region, while central Pulaski County will grow more slowly. Population will continue spreading to the suburbs, but migration toward outlying counties is now slower than it was during period 1990 to 2010.

This is a forecast, not a promise. We built it based on trends in the recent past and extrapolated into the near future. Population change is based on three essential factors: births, deaths and migration. The first two are termed “natural increase,” and they tend to follow predictable trends. Migration, however, is more of a variable. Jobs, income and quality of life are all factors that influence migration.

Demographic forecasting makes predictions based on people alive today. We have a pretty good idea how many females will be in childbearing ages, for example, and we know the rate at which they have babies, so we can predict how many children will be born with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Our region has a higher fertility rate than the U.S. average, but we have nonetheless dropped below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman. To grow as a region, we must have in-migrants. That’s where jobs and quality of life come into play. Fortunately, our region continues to attract migrants.

Metroplan also forecasts employment. COVID caused a major loss of jobs but now,

in the post-COVID era, we’re seeing a return of employment growth. But there’s a difference: A lot of people dropped out of the labor force during the COVID crisis, and now, even with workers returning, it’s hard to get enough of them. This is a national problem affecting Arkansas, and it’s a factor throwing off Metroplan’s employment forecasts.

COVID caused a lot of older workers to retire early, and they aren’t coming back. Government stimulus programs got some people into the habit of living without jobs, and they are gradually coming back. Then there are demographic factors. Although local fertility is a bit above average, we are having fewer babies, and it’s beginning to catch up with us in not enough young people to hold jobs. This trend was already happening, but the sudden loss of workers during the COVID crunch made it stand out. Get used to waiting a while at checkout counters, in drive-thrus and at your favorite restaurant, all of which have to do with underlying demographics and a shortage of low-wage, mostly young service workers.

How do trends in the Little Rock metro area stack up, compared with other U.S. south central metro areas? From 2010 to 2020 we grew slightly faster than Memphis, and our growth rate was roughly comparable to Baton Rouge, Tulsa, and Jackson, Mississippi. Aside from Memphis, the regional metros with more than 1 million population —places like Dallas, Austin, Nashville and Oklahoma City — grew quite a bit faster, especially Austin. And, of course, the cluster of cities in Northwest Arkansas, though still a smaller region, grew faster than those in the central part of the state.

Looking toward the future, it is important to remember these rates constantly change. A lot of the Little Rock region’s slowdown after 2010 stemmed from the demise of the Alltel corporation, previously a powerhouse of job growth. We’ve seen a slight acceleration in job growth post-COVID, in spite of labor shortage, so the future is very open.

We are becoming a center for warehousing and logistics. We have a niche in fintech and cybersecurity. There’s evidence the larger south-central metros are getting maxed out

with traffic and congestion, plus we have unusually low housing costs, so don’t be surprised if you see this region ticking back up in comparison with other southcentral metros.

The future will see less population growth for just about everybody. We all grew up in a world of rapid growth, yet United Nations forecasts suggest global population growth is slowing, and total world population will probably begin dropping late this century. Here in the United States, birth rates continue their slow decline, while mortality took a jump with COVID-19. Slowing immigration in recent years also helps explain the worker shortage. Central Arkansas is now competing with Northwest Arkansas to attract youthful talent from rural parts of our state, so population growth will be a challenge.

In the meantime, we can plan. Central Arkansas has achieved some outstanding urban revitalization in the past two decades. Areas like River Market and downtown in Little Rock, Argenta and Rockwater in North Little Rock, and Conway’s Hendrix Village, are all prime examples of redeveloping real estate with a great life-work balance. Similar redevelopment has also begun in downtown Benton and Lonoke.

Our natural landscape is varied and attractive with areas of steep topography via the Ouachita Mountains juxtaposed against Delta flatlands with abundant lakes and rivers. We have some of the cleanest and cheapest water in the entire country. Our trail system is world-class with about 88 miles worth already in play. And, thanks to Metroplan’s Regional Greenways Plan, that amenity will eventually include 191 miles of high-quality trails weaving through our region, linking our cities. In short, the future is hazy but Central Arkansas has a lot going for it.

Royal Flush

By Dwain Hebda

ARKANSAS GAMBLING INDUSTRY BOOMING

When the doors opened on Oaklawn’s 2022-2023 racing season Dec. 9, the stream of patrons flowed in familiar channels throughout the historic racetrack. Carried by the tides of tradition, fans picked up racing forms, viewed the mounts at the indoor paddock and scooped up thousands of signature corned beef sandwiches, engaging in annual rites more than 100 years in the making.

But as the gates flew wide on the first race, it was clear that for all the history and tradition draping the edges, an incomparable new vista had come into focus. At the first turn, a seven-story, 200-room hotel, opened in April 2021, loomed trackside. Just beyond that lies the yawning casino floor, expanded as part of the $100 million addition, where dealers, dice and slots now operate 24/7.

Oaklawn, like its competitors, has wasted no time leveraging the new freedoms brought in 2018 when voters finally removed the last remaining barriers between the public and live casino gaming. But this year, ensconced in shiny new amenities, armed with brand-new mobile sports wagering and with the pandemic behind them, Arkansas casinos are about to see just what the industry can really do.

The thought that gaming is only starting to find its gear is a startling one, given the revenue (and various taxes) generated thus far by the state’s three casinos, not to mention thousands

of jobs and the substantial trickle-down spending by tens of thousands of guests. From the Delta to the Spa City and from the shadow of Memphis to the shores of the River Valley, the future has never looked brighter for the industry in Arkansas

The Upstart

When Saracen Casino planted its stake in Jefferson County, it did so without the name recognition Oaklawn and Southland had forged over generations. It also lacked the advantages of a major population center on its back doorstep or of being located in the state’s tourism epicenter. Quite the contrary, the casino opened in a community tourists rarely visited, let alone built a weekend or vacation around.

And yet, none of those factors seems to have stunted the company’s performance much. If anything, it has emboldened Saracen with an underdog spirit, the plucky contender ready to stand toe-to-toe with all entertainment comers, building the community right along with it.

“When you come to Saracen, you are going to experience a business that’s identity is casino gaming, period. That’s who we are,” said Carlton Saffa, chief market officer. “We believe in producing a quality casino product. That’s our core. We’ve tried, and I think successfully, to introduce ourselves as a Vegas-style experience.

“There’s no greater compliment than the fact someone’s driving an hour and a half or two hours, literally passing casinos, to

come play at your facility. And when you look at the macro data, you see the gaming revenue in central Arkansas has basically doubled since we opened. That says to me we’ve found something that was missing in this market. There was an unmet need and we are meeting it.”

Saracen has scored notable first-to-markets, particularly on the amenities side. The on-site Red Oak Steakhouse has been a star attraction since it opened, challenging other properties to compete with its high-end fare. This has helped compensate for Saracen lagging behind the competition in brick-and-mortar, something Saffa blames on pandemic-related issues. While for some, this only pads the casino’s diamond-in-the-rough appeal, management is eager to make up ground on facilities and curb appeal.

“I will make no secret of the fact that gaming is not immune to COVID,” Saffa said. “Every other month has had some form of COVID limitation, COVID spike. Between that and $4 gasoline, we’ve seen weird times. We’ve seen all kinds of weird times. In fact, 80% of our time open has been under a weird time.

“In the 26 months we’ve been open, we believe — and we’re not even sure because we don’t have enough data — but we’ve seen what we believe are probably four to five months at most of normal operating conditions.”

As of November, Saracen had the second-highest number of slots, but was virtually tied with Oaklawn in total cash spun both in November and year to date. The property was also well behind the field in on-premises retail sport betting. The casino saw $750,000 in November retail sports handle, a total three and four times lower than at Oaklawn and Southland, respectively.

A closer look, however, shows Saracen’s emerging pockets of strength such as table play, where it ranked second, and particularly in mobile sports betting. Per the state’s monthly Casino Gaming Section/Expanded Games of Skill report, the casino grew its monthly mobile sports handle over six months to a peak of $15.5 million in November, a number almost twice that of the other two casinos combined. Given that, it doesn’t take much to see the potential once the hotel and conference space are completed.

“Our plans at this point are to go vertical with the hotel tower in the first quarter [of 2023],” Saffa said. “That hotel expects to be 320-plus rooms, and we’re looking at an event space that can hold up to 1,600 people. That space will feature a permanent stage, so we can do large, big-name acts all the way to converting the space to conventions or meetings.”

In many ways, the grit and optimism of Saracen leadership reflects the resilient spirit of Pine Bluff itself. Saffa said the property is proud to play a role in the community reclaiming some of its lost luster.

“In Pine Buff, the cards that have been coming out of the shoe have been kind of rough for about a generation,” he said. “But we’ve got incredible leaders here who I think are making the most of situations that are occurring in areas all over the South, probably nowhere more vividly than in Pine Bluff.

“We’re bringing 150,000 people a month through our doors. Many of those people had written off Pine Bluff, and I’m proud to say we gave them a reason to come back. There are towns all over the state that are drying up that would jump at the chance

for people to come visit their town once again, and I’m glad that it’s working here with Saracen.”

The Powerhouse

Southland Casino Hotel has quickly sprinted to the forefront of Arkansas casinos. On nearly every measurement, the West Memphis property is well ahead of the competition, spinning $274 million in slots in November alone, about double that of either Oaklawn or Saracen. What’s more, its November retail sportsbook handle of $3.1 million and $2.9 million in live tables net win about equaled the other two properties combined, aided greatly by Memphis tourists who find their way across the river.

But with a new hotel and expanded casino just opened, Southland is hoping to become a destination all its own. The company recently celebrated completion of its $320 million expansion, including a new 300-room, 20-story hotel and boosting the gaming floor to 113,000 square feet, 50 live tables and 2,400 slot machines.

“We are not where we want to be at this time; I think the future of Southland is still a lot brighter,” said Osi Imomoh, general manager. “Currently, our clientele is very local. We’ve been here a long time, so it’s generated by name recognition. This area knows who we are.

“The addition of this new facility will be how we bring more people to the community of West Memphis, and I think that’s the most exciting part about it. We’re uniquely prepared with this facility, the world-class restaurants we’ve put into this building and the team we’ve assembled.”

Imomoh said digital technology also figures to play a major role in bringing visitors to Southland’s newly constructed property.

“We launched our Southland Lucky North mobile app, which is an all-encompassing app for patrons to see all their gaming offerings, dining and hotel,” he said. “We also have a mobile sports betting app statewide called Betly. In addition, we are seeing more adaptation of cashless technology, such as in our steakhouse. We have seen some barriers to that in other outlets, but I think it’s coming along.

“Technology is ever-changing, right? And right now, the mobile app and cashless technology are the two biggest things going forward.”

This isn’t Imomoh’s first spin in Crittenden County; he served here a decade ago as Southland’s food and beverage director. He returns to usher the nearly 70-year-old venue into becoming a regional destination without alienating longtime regulars.

“I still see people here from 10 years ago,” he said. “When we talk about our changing clientele, I preface that by saying we’re not looking to change guests, we’re looking to add guests. There’s something here for everyone.

“When you look at this part of the state, it doesn’t always get the best rap. The more people we can get to see West Memphis differently, not only do we do better, but the gas stations and other businesses in town also do better.”

Imomoh’s “We’re all in this together,” spiel might be written off as tired public relations pap except for the company’s impressive record of putting money where its mission is in the community. While most casinos kick in to local causes at some level, Southland’s record of philanthropy has been consistent and extensive.

In addition to direct contributions to nonprofits and supporting the city and state through tax receipts, the property’s parent company, Delaware North, launched ALL IN for Stronger Communities to take a more coordinated and proactive approach to addressing needs within the area itself.

“We do a needs assessment of the community and also the region,” said Neki Catron, community engagement manager, who was hired specifically to manage the program. “We look at what’s needed and how we can provide accessibility of resources from Memphis, Little Rock, Jonesboro, all over this region.

“Most people would be really surprised at what issues we’re looking at, like food deserts. We look at areas like health resources, we look at the homeless environment. We put a lot of backing behind initiatives most people don’t realize we support.”

Over the past two years, Southland’s partnership with the Midsouth Food Bank resulted in collecting more than 600,000 pounds of food for the local area, Catron said. The company also worked with East Arkansas Health Center to develop an OB-GYN clinic staffed daily, the only one in the county. Not exactly standard casino billboard material, but an essential part of Southland’s culture, she said.

“The thing is, we are in this community, and even though every single person we invest in may not come inside our facility, we want to make sure we are still a part of that community,” Catron said. “We do things just because they’re the right things to do. That’s what corporate social responsibility is about.”

The Stalwart

For nearly 120 years, Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort has welcomed guests from all corners of the country. Most of that time, the attraction was horse racing, but as each new chapter of Arkansas wagering unfolded – from simulcast racing to games of skill to present day – Oaklawn has kept up with the times.

So, it should come as no surprise that even with its new hotel and expanded casino barely broken in, property leadership is already looking for what’s next.

“At Oaklawn, we always want to embrace change,” said Wayne Smith, general manager. “We just opened up a brand-new state-

of-the-art sports bar with Top Golf, ax throwing, shuffleboard and nearly 100 TVs. We’ve added that amenity as all-ages as well, so you don’t have to go to the casino. We have a luxury spa. We have an event center that does banquets and group events and also will do concerts.

“And we have restaurants that, in my opinion, are second to none in Arkansas. Oaklawn has not always been known as a culinary destination. We’ve got phenomenal chefs now and a new executive chef. So, our culinary aspect is going to be a focus for us in the coming 12 to 24 months.”

Smith said such additions are not just for the sake of filling up square footage, but calculated business decisions to allow Oaklawn to remain competitive. In November, Oaklawn ranked second or third among Arkansas properties across various gaming categories. The company’s big winner of late is its mobile sports wagering. While rolled out much later than its competitors, action quickly reached par with other casinos. Per the CGS/EGS report, sports handle jumped from about $800,000 in September 2022, its first month, to $2.7 million in November.

Such numbers illustrate that while Oaklawn is certainly holding its own, the competitive landscape is a far cry from the decades when the property had a built-in exclusivity – live thoroughbred racing – now just one attraction among many.

“There’s competition there,” Smith said. “We’re very fortunate to have horse racing in Arkansas, but regionally, you’ve got Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky all running horse racing at the same time we are. Then, when you look at casinos, we have one an hour or so away from us, and there’s probably 20-plus casinos within a four-hour drive of this property. So, we compete very heavily in the casino space too.”

For everything that Oaklawn has done to keep up with the Joneses, it still holds some inherent advantages the competition can’t match. Oaklawn enjoys the kind of instant name recognition only a century-plus in business can create and anchors the many other attractions within arm’s reach in Hot Springs, epicenter of the state’s tourism.

“What we’ve been able to do is position ourselves as a prop-

erty that can garner a regional destination for people who like to travel, who like to drive,” Smith said. “When you look at the drive time from Hot Springs to Dallas, to Memphis, to Nashville, to Tulsa, Oklahoma City or Shreveport, we’re four to five hours max from anybody. We’re finding that our travel patterns now are leaning more and more towards the driving position, particularly regionally.

“Then, when you have a state like Arkansas, which has such natural beauty, and you have a town like Hot Springs that is the number one tourist attraction in the state of Arkansas, the opportunity is there for us to garner a different clientele than we’ve had in the past. We have already seen some nice growth regionally over the last 12 months since we’ve had our resort fully open.”

Despite everything that’s new, Oaklawn still retains a feeling of familiarity, something Smith chalks up to its lineage of family ownership dating back to 1916. With more places than ever to place a bet – all of them offering essentially the same odds and options –it’s another way the Arkansas landmark is setting itself apart.

“Our ownership is highly unusual in today’s world; from Oklahoma to Mississippi to Louisiana, there might be a single tribe that owns a property, but I don’t know of a single owner in our region,” Smith said. “It takes a lot of guts for somebody to want to do that and support it the way that our ownership does with racing number one. The racetrack is the reason why Oaklawn is here; it’s the reason why the casino and the resort are here.

“Quite honestly, we are very unique. It’s a model that isn’t copied much around the country, if at all, particularly with just one site. But without invested ownership it just would never work. We’re very, very fortunate to have that type of ownership here.”

The Contender

The forthcoming $225 million Legends Resort and Casino in Pope County will change the literal and figurative landscape of the River Valley. Boasting 200 hotel rooms, 50,000 square feet of gaming, a 15,000-square-foot event center and an outdoor music venue to hold 5,000, the project will create 1,000 jobs and generate untold millions in tax revenue and direct contributions to local nonprofits. The company forecasts an overall economic impact for the state of more than $5 billion during the property’s first 10 years.

But in the burgeoning arms race found throughout the state’s casinos, those facts alone are not that unique. What is noteworthy is the Legends project is finally being built at all following years of legal wrangling in a dizzying saga where millions were spent and billions hung in the balance.

Chuck Garrett, CEO of Cherokee Nation Businesses, is happy to be at the end of such an ordeal but he still can’t quite wring the weariness out of his voice discussing the three years it took to get here without a single shovelful of dirt yet turned.

“If you’re asking if I see a silver lining to all that, the short answer is no,” he said. “If I could choose to have not had a delay and had a straight line to develop and open the resort, I would have preferred that.”

As grueling as the litany of (mostly resolved) legal challenges has been, it has done nothing to temper CNB’s optimism about

Legends. Garrett said from the beginning, the company was only interested in Pope County, noting its location would dovetail with existing CNB properties in Oklahoma.

“We were exclusively focused on Russellville for several reasons,” he said. “One was the proximity to Interstate 40, along which we have two other properties. That, we felt like, was a good corridor for us strategically to grow.

“Secondly, Cherokee Nation has a historic connection to Pope County dating back to the mid-1800s. There are some cultural connections that were of interest to us to pursue as part of our overall tourism effort.”

The Russellville property anchors an exciting new chapter in the history of CNB, one where the company is actively growing from a clutch of 10 casinos in one state to a regional operator. In addition to building Legends, CNB has also purchased the Gold Strike property in Tunica, Mississippi.

Garrett said this growth reflects trends in the gaming industry as a whole, moving from one or two national hotspots dominated by national brands to a network of regional players providing more hands-on management and localized oversight.

“What you’re seeing are states that haven’t historically had legal gaming recognizing the tremendous economic impact that gaming can have from employment and other economic factors,” he said. “You’re seeing more and more states embrace that. That has resulted in a fractured market and created some opportunities for operators like us.

“We’re closer to the consumer in ways that national and international gaming companies aren’t. I think it’s created some really interesting opportunities for us and others that have history in those types of markets.”

Garrett said patrons of the Russellville property will notice right away how this localized strategy is expressed in the architecture and décor of the place.

“What we have tried to do is focus our branding on the consumer who is local, who is present there in that geographic area,” he said. “For example, Cherokee Casino within the Cherokee Nation, which is logical. Hard Rock, which is in Tulsa, is our flagship property and is a more urban destination.

“Legends, we felt like, was an interesting opportunity to focus on the unique aspects of Arkansas and the history of Arkansas. You’ll see references to famous athletes, famous musicians and other individuals who have made an impact, who originated from Arkansas. Some of the architectural features will be a nod to the beautiful Arkansas landscape. You’ll see water, you’ll see some very unique stone features and some other aspects that look and feel like Arkansas.”

With the one final legal action dragging at the project’s hem winding down, Legends Resort and Casino is primed to begin construction soon. The entire project will be built in one phase by Arkansas-based CDI Contractors and take 18 to 24 months to complete. Talking about it, Garrett’s tone perks up.

“You’re going to see a beautiful, cutting-edge facility that’s going to have a heck of an economic impact in the community,” he said. “Some guests will come just for entertainment and some will come to game. We welcome them all.”

Southland Casino Hotel is the perfect weekend getaway. Enjoy all the games you know and love on our massive casino floor with virtually endless dining choices. Plus, stay in our luxurious hotel. It’s all new and ready for you.

DIGEST

NEWSMAKERS

By AMP Staff

TIM GRIFFIN BRINGS CHANGE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE

As former Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin swaps positions with former Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, he brings with him a new senior staff as well significant changes to the office’s leadership structure. Griffin has retained several top officials from Rutledge’s staff, including Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni and Lloyd Warford, deputy attorney general for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

“I am excited to announce my senior staff and restructuring,” Griffin said in a statement. “This talented team will serve with excellence and the highest level of professionalism. They share my commitment to protecting Arkansans from criminals, unscrupulous actors, and an overreaching federal government.”

A few of the most significant positions in Rutledge’s staff will not be refilled, as Griffin is eliminating the Chief of Staff and two Deputy Chief of Staff positions to pave the way for a new unified supervisory structure. This structure includes new positions and divisions such as a Special Prosecutions Division, a Director of Trial Advocacy, a Special Litigation Section under the Civil Litigation Division, and the Office of General Counsel.

The new structure is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Bob Brooks Jr., a native of Fort Smith with experience in Washington D.C. Other noteworthy appointments include General Counsel Zach Mayo, who served in Gov. Hutchinson’s criminal justice council, Senior Advisor Carl Vogelpohl, former chief of staff in the Office of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, Civil Litigation Division John Payne, who holds the rank of Brigadier General in the Arkansas National Guard.

SANDERS SWORN-IN AS ARKANSAS’ FIRST FEMALE GOVERNOR

Sarah Huckabee Sanders took oath as the 47th Governor of Arkansas on Tuesday, Jan. 10. Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, who served as the 44th Governor of the state, and she previously served as the 31st White House press secretary under former President Donald Trump.

As the first woman to serve as governor in Arkansas, Sanders’ inauguration day was historic. During her remarks to the legislature, she touched on policy priorities including education and school choice, prison and police expansion and reducing the state income tax.

Sanders has announced several cabinet appointments in recent weeks. Among her selections are Jacob Oliva as Secretary of the Department of Education, Judge Joseph Wood as Secretary of Transformation and Shared Services and Joe Profiri as Secretary of the Department of Corrections.

First Gentleman Bryan Sanders has been married to Gov. Sanders since 2010 and has a background in campaign media. Sanders served on her father’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Lt. Gov. Leslie Ruteldge and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin were also sworn in.

GOVERNOR SANDERS CABINET APPOINTMENTS

With a new governor comes great changes in the state’s leadership, not only at the gubernatorial level but with every new department head that the governor chooses to appoint. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is no exception, as her recent swearing-in has brought with her a host of new appointees. Here are just a few of the notable inclusions.

In late December, Sanders announced her intention to nominate Jacob Oliva, a key education leader for Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, as the Secretary of the Department of Education, citing “Jacob’s proven success increasing student achievement and his experience serving in many educational roles.”

For the Department of Human Services, she selected Kristi Putnam as Secretary, Mischa Martin as Deputy Director for Youth andFamilies, Janet Mann as Deputy Director of Health and State Medicaid Director, and Mark White as Chief of Staff.

Sanders named Hugh McDonald, former president and CEO of Entergy Arkansas, Inc., as Secretary of the Department of Commerce. For the new Secretary of the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, she has selected Mike Mills, the founder and owner of Buffalo Outdoor Center with more than 48 years of experience in the tourism industry.

She nominated Arkansas State Police Captain Mike Hagar to serve as both Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Director of the Division of Arkansas State Police. Lastly, Gretchen Conger, a senior advisor to Sanders’ gubernatorial campaign, now serves as Chief of Staff for her administration.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK PROMOTES

FIRST BLACK POLICE CAPTAIN

Ron Messer recently earned the historic distinction of being the first African American in the North Little Rock Police Department to be promoted to the rank of Captain in a ceremony at the North Little Rock Justice Center. He has served in the department since 1997 and has experience in the patrol division, narcotics division and as a school resource officer.

“Well, I’m feeling great to know that I’m a part of something bigger than myself. It’s a great opportunity for me and for people like me to be able to see that they can do whatever they set their minds to,” Messer said to KATV after his promotion ceremony.

The rank of Captain is the third-highest attainable after only Chief and Assistant Chief of Police. Messer’s promotion is a major milestone in the process of diversifying the NLRPD, which serves a city that is more than 43% African American.

NLRPD Police Chief Patrick Thessing told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that police departments try to reflect the racial and ethnic makeups of their communities, and the NLRPD is actively recruiting minorities. Doing so can take time, however, as it requires a position to be open at the right time for the right individual.

Many other police officers feel comfortable in their current positions, Thessing said, and do not seek promotion, but Messer was willing to take that step forward. Messer told the Democrat-Gazette that he intentionally took his time in looking for a promotion to ensure that he was ready, spending 13 years as a sergeant before seeking out a promotion to lieutenant. Perhaps his most recent promotion proves that slow and steady can win the race.

TURPENTINE CREEK WILDLIFE REFUGE CELEBRATES BIG CAT PUBLIC SAFETY ACT

After the bill unanimously passed through the U.S. Sentate, President Joe Biden signed the Big Cat Public Safety Act into law. Biden’s administration released the following statement regarding the bill back in July: “The Administration supports H.R. 263, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, which would build on existing laws that protect big cats like tigers, cheetahs, jaguars and other wild animals living in captivity in the United States.”

The passing of this legislation will end the pay-for-play, exploitative cub-petting industry, which is the primary driver behind the overbreeding of exotic cats. Public interaction with cubs is prohibited under the law.

According to a release from Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, the cub-petting industry has generated a high demand for cubs. Cubs can only be used for a very short period before aging out of the industry at 3 months, at which time they are sold into private ownership, become part of the breeding mill or are killed. In addition to an overbreeding problem, the cubs themselves suffer from a lack of proper nutrition, leading to lifelong health issues.

The Big Cat Public Safety Act would prohibit private individuals from owning big cats as pets. Current big cat owners will be grandfathered in, but, will be required to register their animals, agree to not breed, acquire more or sell prohibited species and not allow direct contact with the public, eventually phasing out private ownership.

Though Turpentine Creek currently has no space for more animals, the refuge is planning a 12-acre expansion to help care for the expected influx of rescues.

MENA TRAIL EXPANSION TO BE EXPLORED THROUGH PUBLIC, PRIVATE AGREEMENT

Amemorandum of understanding was signed at the University of Arkansas Rich Mountain to begin the exploratory phase of a trail expansion project. It was signed by representatives of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, the Ouachita National Forest, the Arkansas Parks and Recreation Foundation and the city of Mena.

The memorandum outlines the intent of these groups to cooperate in expanding trail opportunities in and around Queen Wilhelmina State Park, the Ouachita National Forest and the city of Mena.

“This cooperative effort creates exciting possibilities for future outdoor recreation in this beautiful corner of our state,” said Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “So much potential exists for expanding the current recreational opportunities and tourism attractions.”

Queen Wilhelmina State Park is located atop Rich Mountain, Arkansas’ second highest peak, while the city of Mena lies at the eastern foot of the mountain. Both are surrounded by the Ozark National Forest, and the region contains sections of the 225-mile Ouachita National Hiking Trail as well as numerous shorter trails.

“The majestic nature of the terrain along with the area’s existing trail system, such as the Ouachita National Recreation Trail, have attracted countless visitors over the years,” said Suzanne Grobmyer, executive director of the Arkansas Parks and Recreation Foundation. “If completed, this trail development would be the type of system that would be a beacon for mountain bikers, trail runners, hikers and other recreational enthusiasts across the globe.”

NEWSMAKERS

By AMP Staff

LITTLE ROCK MAYOR APPOINTS NEW POLICE CHIEF

At a news conference on Dec. 21, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. of Little Rock announced the appointment of Interim Chief Heath Helton as official police chief going forward. The announcement closed out a year of multiple chief and interim chief retirements, making Helton the fourth person to lead the LRPD in 2022.

Former Police Chief Keith Humphrey retired from the police force in early May. He was succeeded by Interim Chief Crystal Young-Haskins, who then resigned less than a month later on June 18. She, in turn, was followed by Interim Chief Wayne Bewley, who led the department for several months before also retiring from the force in December. Helton took over as interim chief on Dec. 3 before being officially appointed as police chief.

Helton is a 27-year veteran of the LRPD, having risen through the ranks from officer in 1996 to sergeant in 2003, lieutenant in 2011, captain in 2015 and assistant chief in early 2022. Mayor Scott selected Helton out of 43 applicants from a nation-wide search.

“I’m honored and humbled to be named Little Rock’s 39th police chief, and I’m grateful to Mayor Scott for giving me the opportunity to lead the department I’ve worked for since 1996,” Helton said in the in the press conference. “The men and women of the LRPD are committed to excellence and to ensuring the safety and well-being of every resident and visitor to our city. I am eager to take over as chief in a permanent capacity and work with the department, the Mayor and the City Board to protect and serve our city.”

BENTONVILLE BECOMES HOME, OF THE U.S. NATIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKING TEAM

USA Cycling has announced that Bentonville will become the official “Home of the U.S. National Mountain Bike Team,” making it the primary training ground for young athletes looking for success in 2028. The U.S. National Mountain Bike Team will use Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas’ network of trails and gravel for endurance fitness camps and skills-development camps leading into the World Cup racing season. In addition to National Team camps, USA Cycling will also host mountain bike and road Junior Talent Identification and Skills Camps in Bentonville.

The camps are made possible through a philanthropic investment by the Walton Family Foundation at the direction of Steuart Walton and Tom Walton, the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation and the Penner Family Foundation.

“Northwest Arkansas’ incredible network of singletrack trails and gravel roads is the perfect training ground for the National Team,” said Brendan Quirk, CEO of USA Cycling. “Our riders love racing and training in Northwest Arkansas. By deepening our presence here, we’ll make it easier for riders at all levels to get access to our racing development pathway and pursue their athletic goals.”

“Our long-term goal is for Team USA to win the gold at the 2028 Olympic Games,” Quirk said. “This investment gives us access to the infrastructure and resources we need to support our Under-23 and Junior riders. Developing these up-and-coming riders is a top priority for USA Cycling, now and in the future.”

TEXAS DE BRAZIL ANNOUNCES FIRST ARKANSAS LOCATION

IN ROGERS

The family-owned and -operated steakhouse, Texas de Brazil Churrascaria, announced in early December its plans to open a location in Rogers, its first foray into the Arkansas market. It is expected to open in 2023 in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade.

Texas de Brazil is known for its authentically South American churrasco style of cooking, in which meat is skewered and cooked over an open flame using natural wood charcoal, giving it a smoky flavor.

The company currently operates dozens of locations in 21 states from New York to Washington, with international locations in the Caribbean, Middle East and South Korea.

“The Rogers location will be our first in the state of Arkansas, representing an exciting expansion into the region,” Salim Asrawi, president of Texas de Brazil said in the news release. “The Pinnacle Hills area continues to grow and provide new opportunities to the residents and visitors of Rogers, and we are excited that our upscale dining experience will be a part of that.”

The restaurant’s menu features various cuts of beef, lamb, pork and sausage. Other items include imported cheeses, Brazilian black beans and a wine list with numerous South American options.

INFLUENCERS of the year

What is an influencer? Simply put, it is one who wields influence, no social media account needed. They are the people, be they civil leaders, CEOs, or media personalities, who see something they want to do and have the skills, reputation, and willpower to make sure it gets done. They are the movers and shakers, the leaders who shape the future of our state.

The actions of these influencers have affected every Arkansan. From the basic necessities of life and exploring the outdoors to the governance of the state and the mentorship of the influencers of tomorrow, the impact of these figures will continue to be felt for generations.

Though few people may recognize just how many influencers have played a part in their lives, the readers of Arkansas Money and Politics have chosen to recognize these men and women by nominating them for the work they do. The 2023 Influencers of the Year list was then selected from those nominees by a panel of winners from previous years.

Arkansas Money and Politics is proud to honor this year’s influencers.

And Justice for All

Judge Tjuana Byrd Manning

By Dwain Hebda

Meeting Tjuana Byrd Manning for the first time puts on display everything you envisioned and nothing you’d expect.

She’s as stylish as you’ve heard, if far smaller in stature. Perched on an occasional chair in her tiny office at the county juvenile justice complex in Little Rock, she looks as if she could disappear entirely inside the large vase exploding with neon pink roses on her desk. She’s more soft-spoken than you might imagine, too, and these elements together make you wonder how she could ever command attention in a courtroom, be it from the well or from the bench.

That is, until the subject turns to children, the elderly, the poor or any of society’s other disenfranchised and discarded. When that happens, some unseen switch trips from within, and like a locomotive building steam, her eyes flash. Her voice takes on the passion of a Sunday spiritual, and she leans figuratively and physically into each succeeding point.

“In the households where I grew up, service was always displayed before me,” she said. “It wasn’t like somebody was saying, ‘Now, you’ve got to serve others.’ It was important to serve others because that’s what my grandmother was doing, what my mother was doing. My mother always had somebody’s child in the house; she was one of those people where folks who needed a soft place to land landed at our house.”

At this, Byrd Manning’s shoulders go back and her head cocks almost imperceptibly sideways, as if making sure her words are hitting home. Her Honor may have only taken the Pulaski County Circuit Division 8 bench 18 months ago, but the things she stands for have been the marrow of her soul for as long as she can remember.

“Love God, honor God,” she said, as if by mantra. “Make sure you represent your name well. And treat others like you want to be treated.”

Byrd Manning was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Things didn’t work out between her mom and her biological father, but when her stepfather came along it was, by all accounts, love at first sight. Flossie Byrd and Albert Tolbert were married after a three-month whirlwind courtship and after Albert’s hitch in the Air Force ended, the family planned its return to his native Arkansas. What happened next would indelibly shape Byrd Manning for the rest of her life.

“While they were here looking for where they were going to live, my grandfather died,” she said. “My uncles convinced my mother to let me stay [in North Carolina] with my grandmother for the summer, so she wouldn’t be by herself. Well, that request stretched out through the school year and another school year. By the time I was 5 years old until age 12, I lived with my grandmother.”

The experience laid the foundation for everything Byrd Manning

would come to understand about the world: how to carry yourself, what to demand of yourself and the simple, comforting joys of knowing who you were and where you belonged. She also learned the broader meaning of community, radiating from the dinner table to the embrace of her church and her neighborhood.

“When I was growing up, the community raised you,” she said. “Any adult had some say or influence in what was going on with you to encourage you, to correct you, to discipline you even. These days, we’ve gotten so far away from that to where people are isolated in their own silos. But at the end of the day, we still need community. We need that village.”

Byrd Manning’s choice to enter law at the University of Arkansas was a combination of pragmatism — she’d discovered students in her first choice of pediatrics didn’t get much sleep — and aspiration.

“There wasn’t some epiphany and I can’t say that I had ever considered law before,” she said. “We didn’t have any lawyers in my family. When one of my friends from high school changed her major to criminal justice I was like, well, maybe I could try that out.”

After graduation, Byrd Manning returned to Central Arkansas where she’d attend law school at night and work as a probation officer by day, earning her law degree from then-UALR School of Law in 1996. Her first job was as a public defender in Little Rock District Court where she learned how to argue cases not of her choosing but dropped randomly on her desk.

“It’s trial and error, a whole lot of that,” she said of learning those ropes. “It’s really just a matter of practice. The very first time I had to tell somebody, ‘They’re offering you 12 years in prison,’ that was hard. How do you say that to someone? I didn’t go to a class that said this is how you do it; the job just kind of puts you there.”

It wasn’t long before Byrd Manning’s career took root serving juveniles, the primary focus of her North Little Rock private practice. She’d serve as attorney ad litem for children in foster care and earn various appointments by Governors Mike Beebe and Asa Hutchinson to state boards dealing with child abuse and neglect and juvenile justice. Through these experiences, certain common denominators quickly emerged.

“A lot of the social ills come out of poverty,” she said. “Poverty has always been, and I don’t have any evidence that the government and the powers that be have an interest in everyone achieving equity. While we say that exists, it doesn’t really.”

Along the way, Byrd Manning worked with judges who each played a role in who she became as an advocate and an attorney. Out of these, Judge Joyce Williams Warren became her north star, guiding her decision-making and career aspirations.

“I just liked the way she was in the courtroom,” Byrd Manning said. “Judge Warren was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. She knew the law, but she was also able to engage with people in kind of an ‘Aunt Joyce’ kind of way and that appealed to me. I said, ‘I want to be her when I grow up.’”

Outside of her practice, Byrd Manning was active in The Women’s Foundation, a group dedicated to improving economic opportunity through education, which she would eventually head as its first Black president. Her leadership brought a jolt of energy to foundation programs such as Women Empowered, designed to improve the economic wellbeing of women in Arkansas, and Girls of Promise, which introduced middle schoolers to STEM fields.

Three years ago, the foundation launched an ambitious internship program targeting college-aged women of color in STEM fields, naming it after her. While humbled by the gesture, she’s as adamant as anything to place the credit for that program where it belongs.

“I really need everyone to understand that it wasn’t me who came up with that program, the credit for that belongs with the staff and the executive director,” she said. “When they wanted to name it after me, I mean, what an honor.”

That said, she fully owns the effort she put into being a role model through the foundation, inspiring the next generation.

“Representation, that’s the stamp for me, because women statewide got to see me,” she said. “Little Black girls who participated in our programs got to see me and be in the room with other incredibly intelligent, powerful women. They could see themselves.”

Since taking her seat on the bench in 2021, Byrd Manning has ruled in a manner coalescing the combined lessons of her experiences into a central philosophy. Life is about choices, and choices beget outcomes, and outcomes beget accountability, and accountability, well child, there’s plenty of that to go around.

“Our kids need hope, they need love, they need structure. Those aren’t new things, but I don’t feel like kids get as much of those as they need right now,” she said. “Look at the suicide rate for young people. Gun violence is bananas. A lot of behaviors I see are modeled

behaviors. They’re imitating what they’ve seen.

“Parents just aren’t really doing what they used to. It’s hard for us as a court, even with the services that we put in place, to try to change a 16-year-old who’s had this existence of going home to no boundaries, no expectations. So, my court orders very often include directing parents to do things parents ought to do.”

Some defendants, babies really, she worries may never shake the modern-day shackles of systemic poverty, residual trauma and generational disenfranchisement. Others surprise her, and these reignite her overriding worldview that anything is possible for those who believe in — and work for — redemption.

“However bad it is with the kids, it’s happening on our watch,” she said. “What are we doing? There’s something that each of us can be doing. We can volunteer an hour in school a week. We can help a child in our neighborhood. We can check a child who’s running the streets who shouldn’t be running. Just to provide a sense of support and community, what so many of us grew up with. It’s not too late for that.

“I refuse to be overcome with the negativity. I cannot, because if we give up, then what? And I’ve got some tough cookie cases, I mean, some tough ones where I have no clue what’s going to happen with these kids. I don’t know! I pray, literally, for God to intervene in their lives. But I think as long as we’re living, there’s a chance. As long as we’re alive, there is an opportunity for change, change for the good.”

“Our kids need hope, they need love, they need structure. Those aren’t new things, but I don’t feel like kids get as much of those as they need right now.”

Tjuana Byrd Manning

I appreciate the wonderful organizations that have given me the opportunity to serve and lead in the community.

Thank You!!

| Sam Alley Chairman VCC Construction

At the age of 14 and the oldest of five brothers, Sam Alley moved with his family from a small town north of Jerusalem to Rose City in North Little Rock. Inspired by mentors, he found a passion for engineering.

After graduating with his Civil Engineering Degree from The University of Arkansas, he was hired as a project manager for a Little Rock construction firm. Over the next few years, Alley gained experience in the field as a construction manager. Inspired by his father, an entrepreneur, Sam co-founded VCC in 1987 on his 31st birthday. Alley is now Chairman of VCC and recognized as one of the top engineering and construction professionals in the United States. Under his guidance, VCC is consistently listed in the top 100 contractors by the Engineering News Record and recognized as the largest retail contractor in the nation.

Alley has been a pillar in the community for over 35 years.

Together with his wife Janet, Alley established the Master’s of Construction Management at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). He also served on the steering committee for Campaign Arkansas and is a member of the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering. Alley serves numerous civic groups; he was named a lifetime Board member for Youth Home, a Rotarian, a member of Little Rock Fifty for the Future, and Arkansas Business Executive of the Year for 2013. Alley was honored with the Patriot Award in recognition of his support for our service men and women.

| Cory Anderson Chief Innovation Officer

Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

Cory Anderson is a relentless collaborator. He builds and maintains local and national partnerships and launches bold initiatives in support of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation’s mission to relentlessly pursue equity for all Arkansans.

In addition to his role at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Anderson formerly served as the interim executive director of ForwARd Arkansas and worked for seven years at The Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore.

He is currently a BMe Public Voices Fellow. He also serves on the boards of the Urban League of Arkansas, the Neighborhood Funders Group and the Asset Funders Network. He is Chair of the Board for Association of the Black Executives and Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for Arkansas Baptist College.

| Stephanie Bass Jackson

Vice President of Public Engagement

The Design Group

Stephanie is Executive Vice President of Public Engagement at The Design Group, Arkansas’ leading multicultural communications agency. As an award-winning public relations professional, she directs the strategy and tactical execution of public communications for agency clients. She also serves the mayor of Little Rock, Frank Scott, Jr., in all external relations and was Senior Adviser to his successful reelection campaign for a second term. She served three years as Communications Director in the Office of the Mayor.

Before transitioning to The Design Group, Stephanie’s broadcast journalism career of more than 12 years involved nearly every duty behind and in front of the camera at KARK Channel 4. She is the immediate past president of The Friends of KLRE/KUAR Board for UA Little Rock Public Radio and is a long-standing member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Public Relations Society of America, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., The Links, Inc., and a volunteer at her beloved church, Saint Mark Baptist Church.

| Mitch Bettis President

Arkansas Business

Mitch

Bettis is the owner of Arkansas Business Publishing Group — the award-winning digital marketing and media company founded in 1995. He is also owner and president of 360 West, a media and marketing company in Fort Worth. Bettis has more than 30 years of experience in management and publishing.

He manages the daily operations of a digital marketing and publishing company that produces more than 30 publications including Arkansas Business, the state’s only weekly print publication and online product dedicated to business in Arkansas.

Before joining Arkansas Business, Bettis oversaw GateHouse Media’s 19 print and digital products in 10 communities in Arkansas and northern Louisiana.

For the past 18 months, Bettis and a group of business leaders with the Rotary Club of Little Rock have been leading an effort with the Little Rock School District, Arkansas Department of Education and area nonprofits to amp the business community’s involvement with LRSD. The new community effort is launching its second pilot project in the spring of 2023, with volunteers, mentors and initiatives to improve reading levels of students between pre-K through third grade so they are reading at grade level by third grade.

INFLUENCERS

The Captain of Conservation: AGFC Director Austin Booth

By John Callahan

It is a rare institution that can win the sort of near-universal respect and admiration that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has enjoyed over more than a century of existence. Though he has served as Director of the AGFC for only a year and a half, Austin Booth has already earned his fair share of that respect.

Booth was raised in the unincorporated community of Scott, Arkansas. Between Scott’s rural environment, and his work in the family business of boat engine building, the outdoors played an integral role in Booth’s childhood.

He attended Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock where in 2001 he witnessed the tragedy of 9/11 take place from his sophomore homeroom. Booth’s love for his country and his participation in the school’s ROTC program set him on a trajectory for the military.

“I wanted to enlist right out of Catholic,” Booth said. “But mom and dad told me, ‘No no no no. You’re going to college first; that door is always going to be open.’ I’m really glad that I did.”

He went to The Citadel - The Militry College of South Carolina, in Charleston. From there he went to the South Carolina School of Law in Columbia where the military came calling once again.

A Marine Corps recruiter visited the law school one day, and when he asked who was interested in being a lawyer in Afghanistan, Booth was the only one to raise his hand.

“The weight of seeing so many of my college peers going into the military and the fact that for some of that time we were both in Iraq and Afghanistan, I just told my wife, ‘I can bill hours when I’m old. I can be a general counselor when I’m old. I can’t be a Marine officer when I’m old,’ ” Booth said.

He attended Officer Candidates School for the Marine Corps in 2010 and went on active duty in 2011, followed by a deployment to Afghanistan from July 2015 to Jan. 2016.

“Going into combat, it calibrates what stress looks like,” Booth said. “Additionally, the Marine Corps is the only service that is built around people. The Navy is built around ships, the Air Force is built around planes, but the Marine Corps mantra is that every Marine is a rifleman. That kind of ethos about leadership existing to serve the boots on the ground has impacted me in a lot of ways.”

In Afghanistan, Booth’s work was mainly focused on ensuring possible targets were legally valid and firefights were handled in accordance with a new set of rules of engagement, something that members of Congress were watching closely.

“Oftentimes I would leave the operations center after advising on a kinetic strike,” Booth said. “Then I would walk into a room full of members of Congress who had come to Afghanistan to hear how we

were utilizing these new rules of engagement.”

A congressional staffer he frequently worked with noted he had a knack for interacting with members of Congress and recommended the Marine Corps Congressional Fellowship Program.

Booth signed up for the program and was sent to Capitol Hill for a year. He worked for Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas’s 3rd District, who sat on the House Appropriations Committee and Defense Subcommittee.

“I’m not from Northwest Arkansas, but it was the closest that I got to home other than visiting,” Booth said. “In any one day in that office, I would see more Arkansans than in my entire time in the Marine Corps. I loved it, just absolutely loved it.”

Booth gained extensive insight into how the Marine Corps got its budget, such that when his time with the program came to an end, the Corps allowed him to remain in Washington for the next two years. He acted as an advocate for the Marine Corps, responsible for a $14 billion slice of its budget – work that gave him valuable experience in lobbying for resources. He would remain in the Corps until 2020, when he was honorably discharged at the rank of captain.

His work with Arkansans in Washington convinced him to return home, taking up residence in the state for the first time since leaving for the Citadel. He became the Chief of Staff and CFO for the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, a natural fit for his military and congressional experience. His jump to the AGFC, however, was a less obvious choice.

Before he became director in 2021, Booth had no experience with conservation and had never considered a career in the field. He had never interacted with the commission beyond acquiring licenses and had never been checked by a game warden. Yet it was an agency that he always loved dearly, and he had a strong affinity for the idea of conservation.

“When I think about the Arkansas outdoorsman to me growing up, it’s just so important to me that it exists in the same way or in a better way for my kids,” Booth said. “So, I had the passion even though I was what I like to call a lay-conservationist.

“I still read the paper every day. I read in the paper that the director of the Arkansas Game and Fish was retiring and heard that they were hiring a headhunter. When they released the name of the headhunter, I looked it up. I went on his website and sent in a cover letter and a resume, and we were off to the races.”

Booth believed that his background would be helpful both in leading the agency and in fighting to get it the resources it needed. Meanwhile, he trusted the AGFC’s biologists and professional con-

servationists would be able to manage the technical aspects of the agency’s work as they had for over a century.

Booth’s arrival at the AGFC was quickly felt, both coinciding with and contributing to a time of great activity for the commission.

“We have a lot of momentum in this agency, and this is a really special time for the AGFC where there’s been a lot of challenges and we just keep tackling them,” Booth said. “I wouldn’t say that I’m so much responsible for it. This happened organically; there is an unprecedented unity, a shared vision between me, the commissioners and the agency staff. We’re all moving in the same direction, we’re doing it quickly, and we have the right team behind it.”

Nothing exemplifies that new direction as clearly as the AGFC’s five-year strategic plan, Natural State Tomorrow. This ambitious plan includes a diverse set of goals, from preserving habitat to improving the internal workings of the agency to public outreach. Though the strategic plan covers many bases, the new direction of the AGFC can be summarized in one phrase: “Habitat first, people always.”

“We really want to put a focus on habitat like this agency has never had before,” Booth said. “It’s important not only because that’s what the wildlife needs, but also because of what hunting and fishing mean to Arkansas culturally. Secondary to that, it supports our economy in a huge way, to the tune of roughly $9.7 billion a year.”

To protect Arkansas’s habitat, the AGFC has begun to tackle major generational conservation issues. Perhaps the most important is its green-tree reservoir restoration project, the success or failure of which may decide the future of duck hunting in Arkansas.

Greentree reservoirs are areas of bottomland hardwood trees over which the commission artificially retains water to provide public access for duck hunters and habitat for waterfowl. That immense quantity of habitat is what makes Arkansas the duck hunting capital of the world. But decades of holding this water over the reservoirs too early in the year and for too long has caused severe damage to the trees. In a forest health assessment at Hurricane Lake Wildlife Management

Area in 2018, the AGFC found 42% of the red oaks there were either dead or beyond saving. Leaving the trees to die or ceasing to hold water in the reservoirs entirely would spell doom for the habitat, causing ducks to migrate elsewhere. Steadily over time, the state’s duck hunting identity would be lost, as would the economic benefits that come with it. Therefore, the AGFC is renovating the reservoirs to remove water more quickly and avoid harming the trees, preserving both the habitat and public access. Two such renovations are expected to be completed by the end of June.

Greentree reservoirs are but one of the generational conservation issues that face Arkansas’s outdoors. Habitat loss, forest health and water quality are also serious problems that have been developing for decades and will take many years to solve. But Booth and the AGFC are determined to begin the process here and now. He expressed great confidence in his team’s ability to deal with any issue, but his greatest and most immediate concern is getting the necessary resources.

“We’re grateful to have a Governor-elect and a legislature that understands the importance of the outdoors to Arkansas, both economically and culturally. As we continue to work with them to communicate the great need that we hear from Arkansans, we are only more and more confident that Arkansans and our natural resources will get the resources they deserve.”

“We have a lot of momentum in this agency, and this is a really special time for the AGFC.”

Austin BOOTH

What’s your secret to success?

My time at AGFC so far has been about focus, accountability and taking initiative on some of the state’s most pressing conservation challenges. Also, the team I have is second to none. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I’m confident we have the team and the relationship within the agency to do well without me.

How did your education prepare you for your career?

The strength of writing and reasoning is something I’ve always been drawn to. During my time in the Marine Corps, it was my goal to use my position and legal expertise in a way that would have an impact on the people on the ground. It made me think about what I wanted the rest of my career to look like: I wanted to have an effect, no matter what I did.

What’s an alternate path you could have taken, had things worked out differently?

My dad has been an engine builder since the 1970’s, so I could have joined the family business. I also studied tax and probate law, but after seeing so many of my peers from college going into the military, I joined the Marine Corps.

What is your leadership style?

Going into combat recalibrates what stress looks like. The Marine Corps ethos, about leadership existing to serve the boots on the ground, has also impacted me in a lot of ways.

What has been the most challenging part of your work? The most rewarding?

One of the things I love about this job is that I get to advocate for something that I love dearly, and that’s the outdoors. When it comes to challenges, the thing weighing most heavily on me right now is resources. Growth in Arkansas cities is a good thing, and we should celebrate it. But we’re also losing the total amount of habitat that we have, and what’s left is increasingly more fragmented. We have a unique opportunity to do something about it and the time is now.

Director Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

INFLUENCERS

Friends in High Places: CEO Gary Head of Signature Bank of Arkansas

By John Callahan

If you start from the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Once you are king of the hill, though, where can you go? Many might rest on their laurels and enjoy the view, but Gary Head, chairman and CEO of Signature Bank of Arkansas, got up and left to build his own hill from scratch. It may seem like a strange choice, but he and his company are proud to march to the beat of a different drum.

Head was raised in Eureka Springs, which he affectionately dubbed “the cultural center of the universe.” His father was a rural mail carrier, and his grandfather had been in the savings and loan business but retired before Head graduated college. While he had little personal connection to the banking industry, he nevertheless felt drawn to it and his career path never deviated from that course.

He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas, where he worked with long-time finance professor John Dominick. Dominick helped him to find a job after he graduated in 1982, a year of recession when interest rates were high and banking jobs were scarce. Thanks to the professor’s recommendations, Head was able to land a job at McIlroy Bank, the oldest bank in Arkansas, where he started as a file clerk, one of the lowest rungs of the ladder. It was his job to update the bank’s archaic credit file system, requiring him to sort through decades of old files.

“I got locked in a dungeon until I finished building a new credit file system,” Head said. “I couldn’t come out, so I worked really hard and a lot faster than probably some people might have because I wanted out of there really bad.”

The job that no one else wanted to do turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Since he had to read through every single credit file, he found the files of major figures in the state, such as Frank Broyles and Sam Walton. When he finished the new system and became a loan officer, he knew a little bit about every client who came in the door.

“I became a lot of people’s favorite person really quickly because I knew something about them that nobody else had ever bothered to know,” Head said.

With a promising early career, Head was recruited to First State Bank in Springdale in 1984 at the recommendation of one of his biggest customers and mentors, Jim Lindsey of the Walton Foundation. He remained there for almost three years and became vice president, during which time McIlroy was purchased by Jim Walton’s Arvest Bank Group. In 1988, again at Lindsey’s recommendation, he was recruited back to McIlroy bank, where he would serve

as a finance executive until 1999, the year he was promoted to CEO. The following year, he earned a Master’s of Banking from Louisiana State University.

“I was incredibly fortunate to be named CEO of the bank that I started in [as] a file clerk,” Head said. “The worst job to have in the whole bank, that’s what they put me in. Next thing you know, at 39, I’m president and CEO of the bank.

“It’s very humbling. Most people don’t really understand, because if you’ve never done it then it’s difficult to explain. But all of a sudden, you have a lot of responsibility for a whole lot of people’s lives. You employ a whole lot of people, and they have spouses, children, or grandchildren that rely on their pay. And when you’re the leader, you’re responsible to set an example, to lead with distinction, to provide growth that gives everybody an opportunity to stay employed on a go-forward basis.”

Fortunately, Head had a great deal of help in taking on this responsibility, particularly from Broyles, who was a member of the board of directors. Broyles had been Head’s mentor for many years, and Head credits him with the best advice he has ever received or given: “Now listen carefully, you can never have too many friends. You never know when you’re going to need one, so you make friends all day every day.”

Head remained CEO until 2004, overseeing McIlroy Bank’s 2001 consolidation with the rest of the banks in the Arvest Bank Group, renamed simply Arvest Bank. Though he had made it to a position that many would envy, Head felt an entrepreneurial spirit stir in him.

“At 43, I woke up and decided I could do things differently and build something for my family and my friends’ families,” Head said.

He told no one at Arvest that he would be leaving until he already quit, believing that telling everyone and talking people into coming with him would be equivalent to stealing. Even so, some three dozen employees decided to follow him within two weeks of his departure, becoming the first employees of Signature Bank of Arkansas. He then raised $45 million in startup capital, and the company amassed about $100 million in loans within its first year –yet another case of old friendships coming in handy.

“We were very busy right from the beginning with building a bank,” Head said. “We didn’t know how to do it because there weren’t any rules, and there are no books on it, so we just kind of took off and made up the rules as we went along.”

Head has strong ideas about how to run a bank and he doesn’t

mind if they’re different from how other people do it. His employees have always worn blue jeans to work, which was quite a shift when Signature Bank first started, although the culture of Northwest Arkansas has grown to become similarly casual.

Signature Bank is focused on businesses rather than personal banking. As such, it has fewer locations than most banks, typically with only one location for each of the seven cities it serves, with each bank having its own president.

The financial institution boasts a high level of diversity with 40% of bank presidents and 6 of 8 bank managers being women. As well, 60% of the lending staff are women, compared to the national average of about half that.

“A lot of women appreciate the fact that they can deal with other women at a high level, and a lot of these Csuite people moving into this area for these big companies are ladies. So, I think that spells well for our position,” Head said.

Head is also immensely proud of the company’s establishment of Banco Sí, the first entirely Hispanic-dedicated bank in the state. Opened in Rogers in September, every employee of the bank is bilingual, and all 20 members of the board are Hispanic, in order to better cater to the region’s largest minority group.

“I saw some people cashing checks in the lobby one day, and one guy was having to interpret for the whole group,” Head said. “Later, I found out that he was charging them to be their interpreter, and that gave me great pain. I’d rather that everyone have the same opportunity. I came from a family without any money, so I sure wouldn’t want to have to pay somebody to cash my check because I thought somebody was trying to fool me in a different language.”

Signature Bank sits just below being a $1 billion company and is expected to pass that threshold soon. Head believes it has the potential to make it to $3 billion someday. In the meantime, Head has no intention of ever selling the company.

“It’s a different thought process than some people in our business have, where you build something, sell it, then try to do that again,” Head said. “To me, a banker is like a doctor or lawyer or even a hairdresser. You don’t want to go in and have to explain what

you want every time you get your hair cut. You want some familiarity. I think that to be a good banker you need to be familiar, so when a client gets ready to do something you already know about them and their financial situation.”

That idea about familiarity goes hand in hand with the number one business philosophy at Signature Bank.

“Get along or you’ve got to get along,” Head said. “That goes for our people that work here, and that goes for clients. If you’ve got all the money in the world but you’re not a very nice person and you’re rude to the people that work here, go somewhere else.

“All of our people get along. They’re not best friends, they don’t have to go to dinner every night, but we wear one uniform. And that uniform means that while we might not agree at the end of the day we’re on one team. So we can disagree, but we’re not going to be disagreeable.”

From the beginning, Head has excelled, thanks to a combination of hard work and the many friendships he has made. As CEO of his own bank, he has done his best to ensure the success of his employees by being the kind of mentor that the likes of Dominick and Walton were to him.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have been molded by some of the finest people in history. I got the benefit of being influenced, and it’s only fair that I try to help everyone I can,” Head said. “I try to help as many people as I can every single day because Coach Broyles said you can never have too many friends. You want to make a really good friend? Help them. That’s how you keep one. You take someone and you help them, and you’ve made a friend for a very long time.”

“I’ve been very fortunate to have been molded by some of the finest people in history.”

A 1990 graduate of Ouachita Baptist University, Bettis completed his master’s and doctorate work at Oklahoma State University. From 2007-2009, he was an assistant professor of mass communication at Ouachita Baptist University, teaching courses in public relations, advertising, multimedia communication, news and photojournalism.

He serves on the advisory board of the Hickingbotham School of Business at Ouachita, the advisory board of the School of Business at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the board of visitors of Lyon College, the board of directors of the EAST Initiative and the board of the Rotary Club of Little Rock.

| Greg Bledsoe, M.D., MPH, MBA Arkansas Surgeon General Arkansas State Government

Dr. Gregory H. Bledsoe is a boardcertified Emergency Medicine physician and the current surgeon general for the state of Arkansas. In addition to his duties as surgeon general, Dr. Bledsoe is the medical director of the Emergency Department at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and the founder of ExpedMed, a medical education company focused on expedition medicine. In 2022, Dr. Bledsoe ran in the Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, finishing third in a field of six candidates.

After completing medical school and residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Bledsoe spent five years on faculty in the Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine, completing a two-year fellowship in International Emergency Medicine and a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2005, he received the “Teacher of the Year” award from the Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine. In 2021, Dr. Bledsoe completed a Masters of Business Administration in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bledsoe has extensive experience in international travel, having visited over 50 countries. His international medical experience includes serving as a field physician in Honduras and Nepal, teaching disaster preparedness in Tanzania, leading a nutritional survey among the Beja tribe in northeast Sudan, working as a medical consultant in Beijing, China, and acting as the medical officer for ships in both Antarctica and the Arctic. He is the chief editor of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, a 700 page medical text published by Cambridge University Press in the spring of 2008.

In addition to his clinical duties, Dr. Bledsoe has been an instructor and medical consultant for the United States Secret Service. He was the personal physician to former President

Bill Clinton during Clinton’s tour of Africa in September 2002, and served in Uganda and Senegal on the advance team of President George W. Bush when the President visited the African continent in July of 2003.

INFLUENCERS

Dr. Bledsoe is a member of the Explorers Club and the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society.

| C. Tad Bohannon, J.D. MBA CEO

Central Arkansas Water

CTad Bohannon is the Chief Executive Officer of Central Arkansas Water - the largest water services provider in the State of Arkansas, serving approximately 500,000 customers in 18 cities and communities in 7 countiesprotecting public health and supporting economic growth in central Arkansas, as well as exploring viable solutions to complex water equity issues throughout the region. Bohannon looks for high-performing, innovative, values-driven, informed, and passionate employees to build resilient systems that are financially viable and environmentally sustainable with strong community support.

Under Bohannon’s leadership, CAW has been recognized as a state and national leader in financial reporting, transparency, community partnerships, sustainability, innovation, education, workforce development, regionalism and watershed management. In 2022, CAW was recognized as one of the Leading Utilities of the World. CAW and its employees have also been recognized globally for their professional excellence and their contributions to the profession. Before joining CAW, Bohannon was a partner at one of the preeminent law firms in Arkansas, and his practice focused on water and wastewater utilities, mergers and acquisitions, startups, municipal law and real estate. Altogether, Bohannon has over 25 years of water and wastewater experience.

Bohannon serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the Association of Regional Water Organizations, the Southwest Section of the American Water Works Association, the Water Research Foundation, the Little Rock Workforce Development Board, and the Arkansas Repertory Theater. He is a frequent speaker on leadership, employee development, diversity, equity and inclusion and Arkansas history, as well as a wide range of water utility issues. Bohannon holds an undergraduate degree from Hendrix College, a law degree from the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law, a Master’s (LL.M.) in taxation from Washington University, and an M.B.A from Oxford University.

Bohannon lives in Little Rock with his wife, Gayle, the Administrator of St. James United Methodist Church; his son, Spencer, a Junior at Catholic High School; and their dog, Softy, a Cavachon who is the queen of the household.

Lorrie TROGDEN

How did your education prepare you for your career?

My political science classes shaped my critical and analytical thinking skills as well as my writing ability; I wrote a LOT of 10-20 page papers. My minor in philosophy taught me to take a deeper look at problems and study them from every angle when formulating a debate. My master’s degree rounded out my education with more traditional business classes.

What is your leadership style?

I believe when you hire someone, you need to step out of their way and let them work. I’m there to provide guidance and assistance when needed. If you do that instead of micromanaging, it fosters a trusting and enjoyable working relationship.

INFLUENCER

President & CEO, Arkansas Bankers Association

INFLUENCERS

Born for the Business: Dean Matthew Waller

By John Callahan

Some people choose a career because it will make them the most money. Others just find what jobs they can and may or may not grow to suit them. A few lucky individuals, Dean Matthew Waller of the Sam M. Walton College of Business among them, find a career that they seem born to do. With a genuine fascination for all things business and a love of both learning and teaching, it is hard to imagine any job better suited for him.

Waller was born in 1964 in a rural area outside Kansas City, Missouri. As early as high school, he was exploring the world of business, mowing lawns, working at Dairy Queen and starting a pool cleaning service.

He earned his undergraduate degree in business at the University of Missouri followed by a master’s and Ph.D. in business at Penn State University. His doctoral thesis focused on supply chain management, which would become his main field of study.

He became a visiting assistant professor at the Walton College of Business in 1994. As Northwest Arkansas is home to the likes of Walmart and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Waller found it to be the perfect place for his interest in retail and consumer product supply chain management.

His academic career advanced considerably, becoming an assistant professor in 1995 and an associate professor with tenure in 1997. But in 1999, he gave up his job and tenure in order to pursue another promising career.

“The reason I left, which was kind of a risky move, was because I had a company that was growing really fast called Mercari Technologies,” Waller said. “It was a supply chain-oriented software company.

“We raised a total of $30 million dollars in venture capital back then, approximately $54 million today, and we had about 20 employees in Fayetteville. I couldn’t hire enough people in NWA that had the right skill set, so I opened an office in Washington, D.C., At our peak we had about 120 employees.”

Although Mercari Technologies was sold in 2002, Waller’s education and experience leave little doubt that he could have been a highly successful businessman. Instead, he chose to go back to the world of academia.

“I loved running the software company, but I really wanted to come back and be a professor,” Waller said. “I’ve never been completely driven just by money, if you will. I do enjoy business, and there’s nothing wrong with pursuing profit. Business can be used for good very easily in society, and it is. But I really enjoy teaching, writing, doing research, solving problems mathematically and statistically. I feel like I was cut out for this job.”

It is a rare thing for a college to take back a professor who gave up tenure, but Waller had continued to do research and publish the entire time he was at Mercari. He once again became a professor at the Walton College of Business in 2002 and repeated the tenure process.

In 2006, he began a study-abroad program in which he and 26 MBA students traveled to China for four weeks. He led the trip two years in a row, bringing his wife and four children along each time. In 2008, Walmart asked him to create an executive MBA program for some of its top employees in Walmart China and paid for his entire family to move to the country from Jan. 2008 to June 2009.

Upon returning to Arkansas, he helped establish the Walton Business College’s new Department of Supply Chain Management. He served as chair of the department from 2011 to 2015, when his predecessor, Eli Jones, left for another university. Waller became interim dean, a role he took on officially in May of 2016.

“It’s been a terrific experience,” Waller said. “Our enrollment has grown quite dramatically over the past eight years, and so have our finances. When I became dean, I wanted the Walton College to become more financially healthy, so I focused on growing and diversifying our sources of revenue. Since I became dean, we have grown the revenue of the college by $13 million dollars to $56 million.”

An increase in revenue is hardly the biggest change to come to the college since his tenure began. In 2016, President and CEO of Walmart Doug McMillon, an alum of the Walton College of Business, funded the McMillon Family Retail Innovation and Technology Lab, where students learn product management.

“One of the most important aspects of product management, I learned from Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer at Walmart. He said, ‘The key to success in product management is to fall in love with the problem, not the solution,’” Waller said.

“One of the biggest challenges in problem-solving is defining the problem clearly, and people oftentimes try to jump to the solution too quickly. The McMillon studio teaches students how to do that by having companies bring real problems to the studio. The students then work in cross-functional teams to solve them”

In 2017, the college opened the Brewer Family Entrepreneurship Hub near the Fayetteville Square. The Hub is a coworking space for new and early-stage entrepreneurs, open to all members of the university community for working or attending workshops and seminars.

In 2018, the college opened the Blockchain Center of Excellence to establish itself as a premier academic leader in the research and ap-

plication of blockchain technology. In 2019, Waller helped established the Walton College Executive Education office in downtown Little Rock, known as Walton College at Second & Main. The office provides non-degree programs for executives to teach leadership, management, marketing and other business-related skills for those who are already working.

The Walton College of Business established its eighth department, the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Venture Innovation, in 2020. The college also received a major grant from Dillard’s CEO William Dillard, a Walton College of Business alum, who has donated $10 million to date to create the William Dillard Department of Accounting. The college already had an accounting department, but the massive donation allowed the department to significantly expand its faculty, provide more scholarships and make other such improvements.

Similarly, J.B. Hunt gave a $5 million donation in 2022 to expand the Department of Supply Chain Management and rename it in founder J.B. Hunt’s honor. The same year, Gartner, Inc. named the Walton College’s supply chain program as No. 1 in North America.

In addition to being a strong leader for the college, Waller is a prominent researcher in his own right. His research has been cited nearly 12,000 times in published works, making him the 16th mostcited scholar at the University of Arkansas. His h-index, a useful indicator of a scholar’s success and notoriety, is 44, meaning 44 of his works have been cited 44 or more times, which by the standards of the h-index indicates an outstanding scholar.

Waller has written and co-written several books, including “The

Definitive Guide to Inventory Management” and “The Dean’s List: Leading a Modern Business School.”

The latter work grew out of his own journey to learn the ropes of being an effective dean. He began a search for the best deans of business schools in the United States, then met with them to learn more about the role. He applied the business principles that he had learned and taught at the university, keeping careful notes on what worked and what didn’t. Since there were no guides on how to be the dean of a business school, he decided to publish what he had learned.

“I write on such narrow topics,” Waller said. “These are never going to be New York Times bestsellers. The market is small, but I believe that you think better when you write. So the act of writing about how to lead a business school helped me to lead better.”

Just as Waller studied the successes of other deans, he constantly seeks to learn from others at the university.

“As dean, I’m always learning about areas of business that I’m not an expert in,” Waller said. “Every time faculty go up for promotion and tenure, I have to review all of the research and teaching they’ve done, and I will read some of their research and learn new things.”

In working with other academic leaders at the university, he has learned many topics outside of business entirely, from architecture to engineering to medieval history. To learn and teach still more, Waller hosts the weekly “Be EPIC Podcast,” in which he talks with alumni, students, professors and anyone else he thinks his students might find interesting.

Waller said he wants students to come away from business school not only with a grasp of business concepts, but also with strong communication skills and a dedication to business integrity and ethics.

“We also want them to feel good about business,” Waller said. “If you read the papers, it’s always about the most egregious things like the Enron fraud or Theranos. But most businesspeople are not like that, they’re just normal people. The neat thing about business, and I want students to understand this, is that business is good. It’s a way to make people’s lives better.”

“As dean, I’m always learning about areas of business that I’m not an expert in.”

| Austin Booth Director

Arkansas Game and Fish

At 35 years of age, Austin Booth is the youngest director to lead the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. This former United States Marine Corps captain most recently served as chief of staff and chief financial officer for the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. Born in Little Rock and raised in Scott, Booth attended the The Citadel - The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, received his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina and served his country in many capacities from 2011-2019, including a 201516 deployment to Afghanistan.

After his tour overseas, he spent a year in Washington, D.C., working for Congressman Steve Womack as part of the Marine Corps Congressional Fellowship Program, followed by another two years on Capitol Hill as an advocate for the Marine Corps budget. He was honorably discharged at the rank of Captain before joining the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. He began his tenure as Director of the AGFC in July 2021.

His passion for promoting “common man and common woman conservation” promises to increase the AGFC’s efforts to recruit, retain and reactivate the next generation of Arkansas’ outdoors enthusiasts. His dedication to supporting sciencebased conservation will ensure the health of The Natural State’s resources.

| Tjuana Byrd Manning Circuit Judge

Pulaski

County Circuit Judge

Tjuana Byrd Manning has spent her adult life in public service. A passionate advocate for children, women and girls, the elderly and healthy living, she is past president of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas. She was previously appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe to serve on the State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board and by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to serve on the Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force. In 2021, Hutchinson also appointed Byrd Manning to the Arkansas Juvenile Justice Coalition.

Prior to being elected to the bench, Byrd Manning was in private legal practice in North Little Rock, where her primary focus was juvenile matters. In her legal career, she’s served as assistant city attorney for North Little Rock; as Sherwood public defender; and attorney ad litem representing children in foster care in Poinsett County.

She is a life member of the NAACP and is actively involved in the North Little Rock chapter. A member of

St. Mark Baptist Church, she serves as large group leader/ storyteller in children’s church and a director for the Watson Primary Ensemble Choir for children ages 3-11. In addition to community and church activities, she enjoys travel, exercise and fitness, outdoor activities and attending sporting events.

INFLUENCERS

Byrd Manning is a graduate of Lonoke High School. She received her undergraduate degree in criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law in 1996.

| Jim Casey CEO USAble Life

JimCasey is the CEO of Life; Specialty Ventures (LSV), the holding company of USAble Life and its affiliates. Since joining the company as chief operating officer in 2008, Casey has helped develop and execute on LSV’s strategic vision, delivering impressive levels of growth and profitability for LSV and its equity partners.

With in-depth experience in all aspects of the insurance business, including financial, operations, claims, underwriting, sales, strategy and mergers and acquisitions/integration, Jim has brought a unique set of skills, perspectives and industry credibility to LSV. He has built an exceptional management team with similarly deep expertise and passion for the business.

Casey’s career began as an underwriter at Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB). After earning an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and two years honing his financial skills at General DataComm Industries in the financial and treasury areas, Casey returned to HSB in 1998. He accepted a position as CFO of HSB Industrial Risk Insurers, where he was part of the leadership team that conducted the sale of the business to a unit of General Electric. Casey served as CFO of the new entity.

From 1999 until 2008, Jim led the 1,100-employee benefit management service area at Hartford Financial Services Group. In 2004, he led the successful acquisition and integration of the CNA group benefits division with that of The Hartford. In 2006, he assumed another key leadership role as senior vice president in charge of the group specialty markets division, where he had full profit and loss accountability for four businesses with a combined revenue of approximately $1 billion.

In addition to his MBA, Casey received a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where he also played football and lacrosse.

Marcy DODERER

What’s your secret to success?

There is not a silver bullet or one simple thing. First, each person should determine their own definition of success. Then, I think it’s a combination of ambition, vision, hard work, good mentors and luck.

Who were your mentors or inspirations?

I had many mentors over the years –mostly my direct supervisors, who helped me do well in the current job and make a plan for how to move forward, upward and onward. I owe a lot to key individuals who took a chance on me when I was young and had limited experience. I am always inspired by leaders who project a bold vision and an authentic approach to work.

Have you mentored others?

One of my favorite and most satisfying roles is serving as a mentor to young leaders who show amazing potential. It is incredibly rewarding to help someone develop a plan to achieve her career aspirations.

How did your education prepare you for your career?

I was exposed to health care, specifically at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, at an early age and knew that I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare administration. I worked towards furthering my education to prepare me for this career by obtaining my BS in Finance from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and my MA in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa. The project work I encountered through my master’s program provided a wonderful opportunity to work with great leaders solving real problems.

What’s your most productive part of the day?

Early mornings, when the office is very quiet, and I use my dedicated “thinking time” – which is blocked on my calendar each morning.

What’s your morning routine like?

Typically my morning includes going for a walk with my husband and dog and enjoying a cup of coffee.

President & CEO, Arkansas Children’s Hospital

| Jay Chesshir President & CEO Little Rock Chamber

JayChesshir is well-known for his involvement in the capital city’s development. In 2006, the proud native of Nashville 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.

| Kristi Crum CEO Rock Dental

Crum, CEO of Rock Dental Brands, leads the strategic performance and growth for more than 92 multispecialty dental clinics across Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Prior to joining Rock Dental Brands in 2019, Crum spent nearly two decades in the telecom industry. With 17 years successfully climbing the ranks at Verizon, she held numerous executive-level positions, including president of the south central region, as well as vice president of marketing and distribution strategy.

Crum is a native Arkansan who began her career in Little Rock with the legacy Alltel Corporation. Throughout her career, she has lived on both the east and west coasts, and she is proud to have made her way back to Arkansas, where she has settled in Little Rock with her twin boys, Conner and Carson.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Hendrix College in Conway. Headquartered in Little Rock, Rock Dental Brands provides general and specialty dental care and operates

under multiple brands, including Westrock Orthodontics, Leap Kids Dental, Rock Family Dental and Impact Dental Specialists.

| Jana DeGeorge Director of Marketing Simmons Bank Arena

Jana

DeGeorge has been Director of Marketing at Simmons Bank Arena since March 2006 and in the marketing department for the last 23 years. Over these 23 years she has developed a very strong working relationship with members of the print and broadcast media across the state as well as concert promoters, artist’ agents and artist’ managers.

DeGeorge’s department of two is responsible for advertising all events that come to the arena using TV, radio, print, social media, outdoor signs, etc. Promoting the venue to the entertainment industry to ensure North Little Rock is on the routing for major tours is a significant part of her job as well. On the day of a show, DeGeorge makes sure the artist and their entourage feel welcomed to the arena and oversees the backstage hospitality components of catering, security, dressing rooms, production office, promoter office and game room.

The only concert she has ever attended, besides working the ones that come through Simmons Bank Arena, was The Eagles in Madison Square Garden in 2013. She loved it.

| Marcy Doderer, FACHE

President & CEO

Arkansas Children’s Hospital

Marcy

Doderer, FACHE, is president and chief executive officer at Arkansas Children’s where she leads the state’s only pediatric health system serving the 700,000 children in Arkansas.

A dynamic leader, Doderer is focused on improving child health by advancing patient care, building community and championing excellence through digital transformation, engaged and efficient partnerships and bold child advocacy.

Doderer has stated “Arkansas Children’s will not stop our pursuit of improving child health until Arkansas is the safest, healthiest place to be a child.”

Under Doderer’s leadership, Arkansas Children’s transformed from one hospital into a health system, with two hospitals, a research institute, a philanthropic foundation, regional clinics and alliances, telemedicine and statewide outreach programs. She has led the organization with an unwavering focus on the core values of safety, teamwork, compassion and excellence.

Doderer is a Fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives and active in many professional organizations. She

Kristi

serves as the Chair of the Children’s Hospital Solutions for Patient Safety Board of Directors and Immediate Past Chair of the Children’s Hospital Association Board of Directors.

Doderer has been recognized for her leadership both at the local and national level, including being named one of Modern Healthcare’s “Top 25 Women Leaders” in 2021.

She obtained her BS in Finance from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and MA in Hospital and Health Administration from The University of Iowa.

| Brad Eichler Executive VP, Head of Investment Banking Stephens, Inc.

Brad Eichler is the Head of Investment Banking at Stephens Inc. He currently oversees more than 250 banking professionals across nine offices in the U.S. and the operations of Stephens Europe Limited in London, England and Frankfurt, Germany. He oversees all corporate advisory and capital raising services that Stephens provides and has worked on many of the firms’ highest profile transactions.

Eichler joined Stephens in July 1991 as an associate in the firm’s Research Department covering the property and casualty insurance industry. In 1999, he began to focus on building the firm’s research effort in Information Technology and Services and was named Director of Research in 2006. In 2007, he became Co-Head of Investment Banking, and in 2015, he was named Head of the Investment Banking Group.

Prior to joining Stephens, Eichler spent two years with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. He holds a BBA in finance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and earned the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1995.

| Mark Evans Senior Pastor Church at Rock Creek

For 30 years, Mark Evans has been helping people from all walks of life make the most of their life in their relationships, personal lives and careers. As a teenager, he worked as the clubhouse manager for the Arkansas Travelers, where he learned the meaning of hard work, long hours and how to get along with people from all types of different backgrounds. During college, he worked as a personal and research assistant for the Arkansas Secretary of State, frequently traveling to official engagements throughout the state.

After a career in student ministry wrapped up in Florida, Evans returned to his home state in 1995 to start a new church concept in Little Rock. From an opening day attendance of 24

people, The Church at Rock Creek has grown to more than 5,000 members in the last two decades. In addition, Evans is the owner of Mr. Wicks men’s clothing store in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood.

| Scott Ford CEO & Co-founder Westrock Coffee Company

ScottFord, Co-founder of Westrock Coffee Company, serves as Chief Executive Officer. When Ford started Westrock Coffee, the goal was to give back in a way that led to economic change in the lives of the people of Rwanda.

INFLUENCERS

Evidence 13 years later is a vertically integrated coffee company that impacts over 1 million members of smallholder farming households in more than 20 different coffee growing countries worldwide. Prior to cofounding Westrock, Ford served as President and CEO of Alltel Corporation.

Ford began his professional career as an investment banker and subsequently served as the Assistant to the Chairman at Stephens Group, where his work involved traditional investment banking services, equity portfolio management, venture capital investing and acquisitions in the media industry. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of AT&T Inc.

| George Gleason Chairman & CEO Bank OZK

George

Gleason has served for 43 years as Chairman and CEO of Bank OZK. He purchased controlling interest in what was then known as Bank of Ozark in 1979 while working as an attorney. He was just 25 years old.

Under Gleason’s leadership, Bank OZK has been profitable every quarter during his tenure, and it has grown almost one thousandfold with over 240 offices in eight states and total assets of around $27 billion. The company trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and consistently ranks as one of the top-performing financial institutions in the country. Bank OZK, through its Real Estate Specialties Group, is also widely recognized as the preeminent commercial real estate construction lender of marquee properties across America.

Gleason is a native Arkansan who received his undergraduate degree in business and economics from Hendrix College and earned his law degree from the University of Arkansas.

In 2022, Gleason was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

Mark EVANS

How did your education prepare you for your career?

My education was less about what I learned and more about who I got to know. My classes at Ouachita Baptist University helped me tremendously when it came to learning how to study the Bible and languages, but the people I crossed paths with helped me open doors, dream big and take steps of faith.

What’s an alternate path you could have taken, had things worked out differently?

Out of high school, I planned to go to law school and pursue politics. I got a great job after high school working for Arkansas Secretary of State Paul Riviere. I thought I was set for a career in politics, but God had something else in mind.

Who were your mentors or inspirations?

As a student at OBU, I worked as a youth pastor for Dr. Dale Cowling. He had retired as the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock and was pastoring a little country church in southwest Arkansas. He taught me how to think outside the box and have big faith in God. I’ve never gotten over that. I still work hard to imagine how God can use me and trust that He can do anything.

What is your leadership style?

I’m very much a visionary leader. You have got to be able to communicate what you want to do and where you are taking the people. I also love to give team members the freedom to do their job and pursue their dreams.

What has been the most challenging part of your work? The most rewarding?

Most challenging: keeping people working toward common goals and purposes and loving each other as they are. Most rewarding: watching someone’s life change because they have experienced being loved by God and others.

INFLUENCER

Senior Pastor The Church at Rock Creek

| Tim Griffin Arkansas Attorney General

Tim Griffin is the current Arkansas Attorney General, having just completed his second term as the 20th Arkansas Lieutenant Governor. He was elected to the lieutenant governorship in 2014 and reelected in 2018.

The Magnolia native represented Arkansas’ Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011-15 and served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas from 200607. For the 113th Congress, Griffin was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority. In the 112th Congress, he served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the House Committee on Ethics and the House Committee on the Judiciary. In 2019, he served as Chairman of the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, for over 20 years and holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and business from Hendrix College, a juris doctor from Tulane University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.

| Kalene Griffith CEO Visit Bentonville

Kalene Griffith is a passionate and dedicated leader in the tourism and hospitality industry. As President and CEO of Visit Bentonville since 2005, she has overseen the organization as the city has undergone a significant transformation, with explosive population growth and positive economic, social and cultural advancement. Through collaborative effort, Bentonville has become a global hotspot for individuals to experience world-class cycling, food and the arts.

Griffith is a tireless advocate for her city and its people, committed to evaluating challenges and celebrating successes. With a strong commitment to collaboration, she works closely with other organizations and individuals to share her enthusiasm and help promote Bentonville, showcasing its unique beauty and its many attractions in order to help build a community that is a wonderful place to both visit and live.

Griffith is a member of several boards and committees dedicated to promoting tourism and community engagement. She is currently chair of the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association, former chair of the Arkansas State Parks and Tourism Commission and a board member at the Arkansas Hospitality Association Travel Council. She is also highly involved with the Arkansas Association of Convention Visitors Bureau and the Bentonville Chamber of Commerce.

Griffith resides in Bentonville with her husband, John. She enjoys spending time around Bentonville with friends and family, including the couple’s two adult children, Keegan and Keelah.

| Robert Hall Vice President Hugg and Hall

RobertHall is the co-owner and vice president of Hugg & Hall Equipment Company, one of the most trusted providers of full-service industrial and material handling equipment in 19 markets across Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas. Hugg & Hall was founded in 1956 as Lift Truck Sales & Service Corporation before becoming Clarklift of Arkansas in 1960. Hall joined the company in 1979, and in 1990, he and John Hugg purchased the business from Hugg’s father, Charles.

Through a number of acquisitions since then, the pair have grown Hugg & Hall into one of the largest independent rental companies in the Mid-South. The company’s offerings include new and used equipment, parts and service support and over 12,000 rental units. Hugg & Hall also represents top industrial manufacturer brands, including Toyota, Doosan, JLG, Crown, Taylor, Genie, Combilift and Bobcat.

Hall earned his master’s degree in finance from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

| Gary Head

Chairman, CEO & President Signature Bank

Gary

Head is CEO and President of Signature Bank of Arkansas and its holding company, White River Bancshares. Head graduated from the University of Arkansas with a BSBA in Finance and Banking in 1982. He began his banking career in 1983 with McIlroy Bank and Trust and was recruited in 1984 by First State Bank where he served as Vice President, Commercial Lending.

Head graduated from the SMU School of Banking in 1987 and that same year rejoined McIlroy Bank and Trust as Vice President, Commercial Loans. During Head’s tenure with Arvest Bank in Fayetteville (formerly McIlroy Bank and Trust) he was Loan Division Manager, Executive Vice President/Sales Manager and in 1999 was named President and CEO. In 2000 he received his Masters of Banking from LSU. Head maintained that position with the bank until 2004 when he resigned to start Signature Bank of Arkansas.

Head’s commitment and contribution to the community

Kalene GRIFFITH

What’s your secret to success?

The secret to success is to not be afraid to take risks, be prepared, be optimistic, and be collaborative. You must believe in yourself and build your personal brand. I am a solutions-based person, and I’ve always worked to get to “yes.”

Have you mentored others?

Yes, I enjoy mentoring others, and I think it’s because I had such wonderful mentors. Whether through listening, coaching, problem solving, supporting, or just laughing, my hope is that I can be a positive example to others.

In your experience, what is the secret to inspiring others to take action?

The secret to inspiring others is to be passionate about what you do and communicate with others your goals for the end result.

INFLUENCER

President & CEO Visit Bentonville

Bob

is well-known; he currently serves on the boards of the NWA Council, Arisa Health, Washington Regional Foundation, and Pagnozzi/Parker Charity. He is currently serving as President of the Arkansas Community Bankers Board and Chair for the Arkansas State Chamber/AIA.

| Alan Hope CEO Powers of Arkansas

Alan Hope has been CEO of Powers of Arkansas, one of the largest privately owned HVAC companies in the state of Arkansas and a Siemens independent field office. He was the Powers’ first employee when it was established in 1985, and became vice president, but left in 1997 to become a partner in Tinsley Mullen Engineers.

In 2005 he purchased Powers of Arkansas from its previous owner, Paul Briscoe, becoming its new CEO. Since then, Hope has carried the company into an era of immense growth, more than quadrupling the number of employees and establishing services across Arkansas and into neighboring states.

Hope earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education from the University of Arkansas. He is an active member of energy and engineering communities, serving as a board member for the Arkansas Association of Healthcare Engineers, Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation Inc. and Arkansas Advanced Energy Association.

| Amanda Jaeger Senior Manager of Digital Strategy Walmart Corporate Affairs

Amanda Jaeger is a Senior Manager of Digital Strategy for Walmart working with the corporate Digital Strategy and Brand Engagement Team. With a focus on social media strategy, she manages C-suite executive communication and assists with developing impactful strategies for various communication campaigns throughout the company.

A social media influencer herself, Jaeger has nearly 2 million followers from across the country. Her success in growing a personal brand on emerging platforms like TikTok has garnered attention from the business community. Jaeger has served as a guest instructor for LinkedIn Learning and appeared as a guest on multiple marketing and business focused podcasts.

Previously, Jaeger was an award-winning News Anchor for the CBS affiliate in Little Rock, where she won a regional Edward R. Murrow award for Innovation and was nominated for a regional Emmy award. Jaeger is passionate about mentoring young women and has been a volunteer within the Miss America Organization for the last 8 years. Jaeger won the title of Miss Kansas in 2014 and competed at Miss America in Atlantic City, where she was selected as a Quality of Life finalist for her

commitment to service. As Miss Kansas, she served the state as an Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and spent the year traveling as a professional public speaker, performer, and advocate.

Jaeger and her husband, Mitch, recently moved to Northwest Arkansas and are excited to connect with people and organizations across the community and within their church, New Heights - Bentonville.

| William Jones IV COO Sissy’s Log Cabin

Bornand raised in The Natural State, William Jones has played an integral role in expanding Sissy’s Log Cabin’s footprint across Arkansas and into Tennessee. As chief operations officer and member of the executive board of directors for the family-owned and -operated jewelry store, Jones focuses on perfecting what truly sets Sissy’s apart: extraordinary customer service and a culture of caring, both for its employees and for the communities it serves.

Jones graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and went on to attend the Gemological Institute of America, becoming a graduate gemologist in 2013. A father of two, Jones cherishes his time with his wife and family and is passionate about giving his time, talents, and treasures to local organizations and charities in the communities Sissy’s Log Cabin serves.

| Matt Jones, J.D., CFP President Legacy Capital

Matt

Jones, JD, CFP, serves as president and directional leader at Little Rock based Legacy Capital, a comprehensive wealth management firm that he joined in 1997. He also serves as a wealth adviser to ultra-affluent clients throughout the United States and advises them in the areas of asset management, estate tax and multigenerational wealth transfer planning and life insurance planning. Jones received a BSBA in financial management from the Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of the Razorback tennis team, and he earned a law degree from the UALR Bowen School of Law.

While enrolled in law school, he clerked at three of Arkansas’ largest law firms before deciding his passion was in finance and investments where he has practiced since 1994. Prior to joining Legacy Capital, he also held positions with investment banking firms Morgan Keegan Inc. of Memphis and Stephens Inc. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for New York based CAIS, the leading firm in the country delivering alterna-

Our partner and former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has been named one of the 2022 Influencers of the Year by Arkansas Money & Politics! Dustin continues to build his legacy of hard work and integrity. He is dedicated to helping some of America’s largest companies as well as clients right here in Arkansas. McDaniel Wolff, PLLC combines diverse experience and decades of success into premium legal services in Arkansas and beyond. Visit our website to learn more at www.McDanielWolff.com.

Congratulations, Jim Casey, for being named one of Arkansas Money & Politics 2023 Influencers of the Year!

For the last 14 years, Jim has worked diligently to help deliver upon USAble Life’s mission to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our customers using his in-depth knowledge and passion for the industry.

Thank you, Jim!

USAbleLife.com

tive investment solutions to independent financial advisors. Additionally, he is a multiple qualifier for MDRT’s exclusive Top of the Table recognizing the life insurance industry’s top advisers. Jones is active in the community, serving on several nonprofit boards and ministries. He currently serves as chair of the Baptist Health Foundation Board.

| Jerrilyn Jones, M.D. Associate Director for Science Office of Preparedness and Emergency Response Systems Arkansas Department of Health

Jerrilyn Jones is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) where she is responsible for educating the next generation of emergency medicine physicians and leaders in medicine. She was named Director of UAMS’s inaugural Post-Baccalaureate Program created to increase the number of Arkansans from disadvantaged backgrounds admitted to the College of Medicine. In its first year, the program successfully placed nearly 70% of its students into medical school and graduate school programs. As the Medical Director for the Office of Preparedness and Emergency Response Systems at the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH), she was a key participant in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic creating “COVID-Comm,” a statewide system designed to balance the load of COVID-19 patients more effectively in hospitals throughout the state and designing the plans for Alternative Care Facilities should traditional hospital become unavailable. She was named to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Winter Task Force and served as part of ADH’s Pandemic Physicians Group. In 2021, she was named Woman of the Year in Public Service by the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas.

In addition to her practice in emergency medicine and public health, Dr. Jones has extensive experience in Emergency Medical Services (EMS), having worked as medical director for both a paramedic training program and a private ambulance service, where she was charged with ensuring the competency and readiness of Nationally Registered EMS personnel. Her practical expertise includes working at the finish line as a first responder during the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and as a first receiver during the civil unrest in Baltimore in 2015.

She graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency and fellowship training with Boston Medical Center and Boston EMS, respectively. She is a former Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force and served in Afghanistan with the 75th Fighter Squadron during Operation Enduring Freedom. Her passion lies in responding to real world disasters and emergencies, as well as educating medical students, residents, paramedics, and the community at large.

| Chris Jones, Ph.D. 2022 Gubernatorial Candidate

Dr. Chris Jones, the 2022 Democratic nominee for Governor of Arkansas, was the first African American to be nominated Governor by a major political party in Arkansas. His campaign launch video was the mostviewed campaign launch video in the country for the 2022 election cycle.

With graduate degrees in nuclear engineering and urban planning, and 20 years of experience in energy, infrastructure, community development, and business, Jones has used his background to advance innovation and entrepreneurship. He has led and participated in projects in engineering, physics, and urban planning, including a study on the future of nuclear power. As a principal at BCT Partners, Jones was lead executive on numerous multimillion-dollar federal projects. He has served on several boards of directors and spent one year teaching in the Boston Public Schools. During his time as assistant dean for graduate education at MIT, Jones led efforts that doubled minority enrollment and more than tripled minority applications to MIT graduate programs.

Prior to his run for Governor, Jones was the executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub where he helped dozens of entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses and created programs that trained thousands of Arkansans on various STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) topics. One program launched during his tenure, The Skills to Launch Program, provides young adults with certification and training in trades such as roofing, welding, HVAC, and carpentry. This unique initiative continues to provide workforce development and upskilling that has generated a high job placement rate for graduates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones pivoted the organization to virtual training that addressed digital literacy and he developed the Arkansas Maker Taskforce to address the supply chain issues.

Jones holds five degrees, math and physics bachelors degrees from Morehouse College, an M.S. in nuclear engineering and an M.S. in technology and policy from MIT, and a Ph.D. in urban studies and planning from MIT. He and his wife, Dr. Jerrilyn Jones, an emergency room physician, live with their three daughters in Little Rock.

| Brad Lacy

President

& CEO

Conway Chamber of Commerce

Brad Lacy is a native of Ida and began his economic development career in 1997 with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission as a community development consultant and later as a project manager, where he worked to recruit companies to the state.

Lacy has served as the president and CEO of the Conway Development Corporation — the city’s nonprofit economic development entity — since 2000. In 2006, Lacy became president and CEO of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce. It marked the first time in nearly two decades the Chamber and CDC had been under the leadership of the same person. The combined management of both organizations brings the city a larger staff to focus on economic development activities. In 2013 and 2022, the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce was named Chamber of the Year by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, and was runner-up in 2018.

Lacy holds a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of Central Arkansas and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Arkansas Little Rock. 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 Institute for Organization Management. Lacy was awarded his Certified Chamber Executive credentials from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives in 2011.

Lacy is a former member of the University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees and served two terms on the Board of Regents for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce West Institute of Organization Management, where he served as chairman.

| Steve Landers CEO Steve Landers Auto Group

Steve Landers, Sr. currently serves as President of Landers Racing, LLC and Steve Landers Automotive Consulting.

Landers got his start in the car industry early, washing cars at a dealership in Little Rock when he was 14. After graduating high school at the age of 17, Landers married and began to sell cars at a Ford dealership. Soon after, he and his father opened a used car store in Benton in 1973 and would purchase their first new dealership in 1989, which sold Jeeps and Oldsmobiles.

Under his management, the stores flourished, and his Chrysler dealership became the world’s largest for several consecutive years, selling over 10,000 vehicles annually and setting the standard all other Chrysler dealers measured their success against. In addition to the significant sales volume, the Chrysler dealership earned the Gold Level Recognition for customer satisfaction from Chrysler each year.

After years of success in Benton, Landers sold his dealerships to United Auto Group (now Penske Automotive Group) in 1997, becoming head of the company’s south-central region, which oversaw operations in five states. After working for one of the largest auto groups in the nation for a few years, Landers bought a Toyota dealership in Little Rock to get back into local business.

In 2004, Landers formed a partnership with Robert Johnson and Mack McLarty, creating RJL McLarty Landers Automotive and running the company as president. The auto group became

one of the best-performing dealership groups in the nation. Landers retired as president in 2012 to be a member of the advisory board and join forces with his son to create the new family of Steve Landers dealerships. Now, the Landers stores are some of the highest-grossing in the region as part of the Luther Automotive Group.

Landers lives in Little Rock with his wife, Sandy. They are active members of Immanuel Baptist Church and are involved in several charity organizations, including the American Heart Association, Juvenile Diabetes Association and the American Cancer Society.

| Kim Leverret Founder & Owner A Kick Above

Dr.Kim Leverett is the founder and owner of A Kick Above Personal Training Studio in Little Rock. A Kick Above is a private, memberonly, personal training facility. As a personal trainer for 22 years and a pharmacist for 30 years, she uses a unique combination of medical and fitness knowledge to help her clients pursue overall health and wellness. After graduating from pharmacy school, she practiced in a community pharmacy, which fed her desire to help patients take control of their health by living more active, healthier lifestyles. She holds trainer certifications through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and the National Exercise Trainer Association (NETA).

Leverett, a native Arkansan, is active in her community. She serves as a guest and member ambassador at her church, Saint Mark Baptist Church and is a member of the Arkansas Heart Hospital Board of Directors. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and a 2020 alumnus of Leadership Greater Little Rock. As an eight-year breast cancer survivor, Leverett is an advocate and mentor for breast cancer survivors and teaches about the importance of routine and early screening and detection.

In her studio, her training philosophy is simple: To help clients be the best version of themselves. With this in mind, she endeavors to help people reach their goals and live healthier lives in every aspect: mind, body, and soul. In her words, “It’s a Lifestyle!”

| Michael Manning

Director of Digital Marking McLarty Automotive Group

Michael

Manning is the Director of Digital Marketing for the McLarty Automotive Group. With home offices in Little Rock, McLarty Automotive Group is a regional auto retailer and the largest in Arkansas with 26 dealerships representing 19 brands. Manning is responsible for

coordination and execution of digital marketing across all dealership locations. He is a recognized leader in automotive advertising and serves on several advisory councils. He is committed to providing frictionless digital experiences leading to transparent transactions that meet the automotive needs in the communities served by McLarty Automotive Group.

Manning is a graduate of Morehouse College and has completed Data Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Analytics curriculums at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. He made Little Rock his home in 2018 and immediately became active in the community where he serves on the boards of the Arkansas Repertory Theater and the Quality Living Center.

| Dustin McDaniel Partner McDaniel Wolf

Dustin McDaniel is a founding partner of the Little Rock law firm McDaniel Wolff, PLLC. McDaniel works with some of America’s largest corporations to assist with their interactions with state attorneys general from both parties. From 20072015, Dustin served as Arkansas’s 55th Attorney General and served as a Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives before being elected Attorney General. McDaniel serves as the National Co-Chair of the Society of Attorneys General Emeritus (SAGE), and in 2022, the National Association of Attorneys General presented McDaniel with the Francis X. Bellotti Award for the outstanding former attorney general in the United States. Also in 2022, McDaniel was appointed to the Board of Trustees for the Central Arkansas Library System.

McDaniel’s practice focuses on assisting clients with state attorney general investigations, consumer protection and administrative law issues, multi-state litigation, antitrust issues, tobacco enforcement and other regulatory compliance. McDaniel Wolff, PLLC has one of the most successful small-firm, state attorney general practices in the nation.

McDaniel serves as lead counsel in Arkansas for Legends Resort and Casino, LLC in their efforts to build and operate a $300 million resort property creating more than 1,100 jobs.

McDaniel is active in many professional, public service and charitable organizations. He is a past member of the Board of Directors for the University of Arkansas Alumni Association and the Board of Our House in Little Rock. In 2019, The UALR William H. Bowen School of Law presented McDaniel with its Distinguished Alumnus Award. McDaniel continues to serve on the law school’s Dean’s Advisory Council and as an Adjunct Professor of Law.

McDaniel and his wife, Bobbi, have three children. Bobbi works as the Development Director of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.

| Adam Mitchell President & CEO Citizens Bank

INFLUENCERS

Adam Mitchell has been serving Citizens Bank as CEO since early 2021 and has more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry. Before joining Citizens Bank, he served as executive vice president and chief retail officer responsible for overseeing branch performance, staffing and service, and sales delivery for more than 190 locations across seven states at another Arkansas bank.

During his tenure at Citizens Bank, the bank has reached $1.3 billion in assets and received various local and national distinctions. Most recently, these include being named American Banker’s “2022 Best Banks to Work For” in the category for banks with less than $3 billion in assets.

A focus on creating a positive culture by putting People First is core to Mitchell’s life philosophy as well. Mitchell has dedicated a significant portion of his career to giving back to the community. He is an advisory board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and, together with his wife, Kristie, was honored with its Living & Giving Award in 2017 and served as co-chair of the Central Arkansas Heart Ball in 2014. Mitchell also currently serves as a board member for USAble Life Corporation, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas Health Group. He has also held various roles with Hendrix College, the Arkansas Bankers Association, Baptist Health Foundation, and Junior Achievement of Arkansas. He leads with the conviction that collaboration is the key to success. He believes collaboration brings new ideas, which, in turn, create opportunities for innovation and creative problem-solving. In his spare time, he enjoys bass fishing and spending time with his family.

| Ben Noble EVP & COO Riceland Foods

BenNoble joined the Riceland Leadership Team in 2017. Noble currently serves as the Executive Vice President and COO for the 101-yearold cooperative, focusing his efforts on operational excellence with an emphasis on supply chain management and efficiency. Noble initially served as Riceland’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and in that role he, along with the leadership team, assisted the organization through rebranding the consumer-facing brand and repositioning its messaging strategy.

Noble was a Commissioner for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. In addition, he is on the Board of Directors for

Tim GRIFFIN

What’s your secret to success?

My faith gives my life purpose, and that has contributed more than anything else to my success. My family, especially my wife, Elizabeth, my children, Mary Katherine, John and Charlotte Anne, and my parents continue to provide indispensable love, support and encouragement.

How did your education prepare you for your career?

My educational experience taught me critical thinking. I attended educational institutions where there weren’t many conservatives; as a result, I learned to defend my positions and perspectives in a way that I may not have had I attended institutions where more of my peers agreed with me. Throughout my educational experience, I was surrounded by a number of people who approached the world differently and had different perspectives. I learned the importance of being able to approach issues in a way that addresses the concerns of people who think differently than I do.

What’s an alternate path you could have taken, had things worked out differently?

I thought about going into medicine, and I also thought about going into business, but I’ve enjoyed the public service path that I’ve taken. I’ve been able to simultaneously serve in the military and have my own small business.

What is your leadership style?

I try to hire the very best and brightest and give them great responsibility while requiring a high level of excellence. In my experience, the people I work with have been able to achieve and meet those expectations; the ones who can’t generally go a different direction.

What’s your most productive part of the day?

Any time that I’m awake, I try to be productive.

Arkansas Attorney General

the USA Rice Millers Association, USA Rice Council, USA Rice Federation, as well as the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the National Wild Turkey Federation. From Ethel, Arkansas, Noble is a 1995 graduate of the University of Arkansas. He and his wife, Kyle Loveless Noble, have two children, James and Ainsley.

Riceland Foods is the world’s largest miller and marketer of rice serving 5,500 farmer members in Arkansas and Missouri. As a farmer-owned cooperative, Riceland stores, transports, processes and markets more than 2.5 million metric tons of grain each year, and its products are sold across the United States and in 75 countries. It’s also one of the Mid-South’s major soybean processors. Riceland products include white, brown and parboiled rice, rice bran oil, soybean meal and oil and feed ingredients.

| Lucie Pathmann SVP of Corporate Marketing Westrock Coffee Company

As Westrock Coffee’s SVP of Corporate Marketing, Lucie Pathman oversees the development of integrated marketing and communications strategies to build and deliver a “one voice” approach to the company’s globally recognized brand. Based in Little Rock, Pathman joined Westrock Coffee in October 2021. In her role, Pathman leads a team that has responsibilities over digital marketing, graphic design, brand strategy, public relations and tradeshows and events.

Prior to Westrock Coffee, Pathman was the Director of Brand Management and Communications for Arkansas-based ad agency, Stone Ward. Pathman began her career over 27 years ago at Alltel, allowing her to amass national credentials in marketing communications across a wide range of disciplines – from promotions, sports marketing, events and publicity.

Pathman received her undergraduate at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She is also an alumnus of both the Greater Little Rock Leadership (Class XXVII) and Arkansas State Leadership Program (2016).

| José Romero, M.D.

Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases,

José R. Romero, MD, is Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, where he leads efforts to detect, prevent and respond to vaccine- preventable and respiratory infectious diseases.

Dr. Romero’s efforts in public health, academic medicine and research span more than three decades. From 2020-2022, he served as Arkansas Secretary of Health and Director of the Arkansas Department of Health, where he led the state’s response to COVID-19. He was Director of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS) pediatric infectious diseases section from 2008-2020 and held the Horace C. Cabe endowed chair.

INFLUENCERS

He has served on various advisory committees to federal agencies. As chair of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from 2018-2021, Dr. Romero provided guidance on the use of COVID-19, influenza and routine vaccines. He also served as chair of the U.S. Poliovirus National Certification Committee and FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

Dr. Romero has contributed extensively to antiviral, pneumococcal surveillance and enteroviral pathogenesis. Furthermore, his work in disease research led to a patent for discoveries made in his lab. He held faculty appointments at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and UAMS, and he completed a Minority Medical Faculty Development Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He was Director of UNMC’s Latino Health-Related Research and Minority Health Education and Research offices.

Dr. Romero earned his medical degree in 1977 from the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases Society of America and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. His memberships include the American Pediatric Society, Society for Pediatric Research, American Society for Virology and Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. He has authored or co-authored nearly 200 articles, policy statements and chapters and received numerous education, health and service awards.

| John Rutledge

Regional President, Little Rock First Security Bank

As Regional President, Little Rock for First Security Bank, John Rutledge follows in the footsteps of his father, Reynie Rutledge, who is chairman of the Searcy-based financial institution. John’s path to the family business began at the University of Arkansas’s Walton College of Business, from which he graduated with a degree in finance management in 2001.

After graduation, Rutledge joined Crews & Associates, a regional broker based in Little Rock, which had recently been

Leading a People First Impact.

Our team is our biggest trophy, and our culture is what makes us different. Thank you, Adam, for your unwavering dedication to a People First mission. Congrats on this honor! Adam Mitchell President & CEO

This is what happens when you put People First.

bought by First Security. After earning his MBA from the U of A in 2004, he joined the bank’s northwest Arkansas operations. He moved to Little Rock in 2007 where he has remained, developing the bank’s presence in the region and building relationships with customers.

In the process, Rutledge has become highly involved with local organizations, living out the community focus of First Security Bank. Rutledge serves as both the chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation’s board of directors and as a commissioner for the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission. He is a natural fit for the latter, being not only an experienced business leader but also a licensed pilot from a family of active aviators.

| Carlton Saffa Chief Market Officer Saracen Casino Resort

Carlton Saffa currently serves as Chief Market Officer Saracen Casino Resort. In his role, Saffa reports to the Quapaw Business Committee, the elected governing body of the Quapaw Nation.

Saffa oversaw the licensure of the enterprise in all forums, including the property’s casino gaming license. In addition, he served as one of the owner’s representatives in the construction of the Saracen Annex, a 300 slot machine facility that was completed and operational in 100 days. Saracen’s main property was developed in parallel and Saffa was onsite daily throughout.

Today, as CMO, Saffa is responsible for the outward-facing functions of the property as well as a number of critical nongaming functions. Day-to-day management of the property’s 800+ employees is co-managed by Saffa alongside two additional senior executives.

Notably, Saffa led the effort to regulate mobile sports gaming in Arkansas, and today BetSaracen books 2/3 of all online wagers in our state.

Previously, Saffa served as Senior Advisor to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, work that began before the Governor’s inauguration. In this role, Saffa handled complex and potentially controversial issues on behalf of the Governor as well as coordinated the passage of Hutchinson’s priority legislation.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Saffa and his wife, Kristen, live in Little Rock with their two young children.

| Sarah

Huckabee Sanders

47th Governor of Arkansas

Inaugurated

on Jan. 10, 2023, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the first woman to serve as governor of the state and currently is the youngest governor in the country.

Prior to her historic victory, Sanders served as White House Press Secretary for President Donald J. Trump from 2017 to 2019. A trusted confidant of the President, she advised him on everything from press and communications strategy to personnel and policy. For two and a half years, Sanders worked closely with the president, battling with the media, working with lawmakers and CEOs, and accompanying the president on every foreign trip, including dozens of meetings with foreign leaders. Sarah was only the third woman – and the very first mom – to ever hold the job of White House Press Secretary.

Upon her departure from the administration, President Trump described Sanders as “irreplaceable,” a “warrior,” and “very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job.”

Sanders joined the Trump campaign as a senior advisor in February 2016 during the Republican primary and continued in that role through the President’s historic victory that November.

Sanders has previously worked in leadership roles for U.S. Senators, Governors, and presidential campaigns. In Arkansas, Sanders was a senior advisor to U.S. Senator Tom Cotton’s 2014 victorious campaign and was campaign manager for U.S. Senator John Boozman’s winning campaign in 2010. In 2007 and 2008, Sarah helped lead her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, to victory in the Iowa Caucuses and seven other states as his national political director. Sanders served in the Department of Education during President George W. Bush’s administration, and was campaign manager of the ONE campaign, a global nonprofit founded by U2’s Bono to take action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

Sanders has been recognized in Fortune and TIME Magazine “40 under 40.” She is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Speaking for Myself,” a former Fox News Channel contributor, and served on the Fulbright board.

Sanders grew up in Pine Bluff and Texarkana and is a proud graduate of Little Rock Central High and Ouachita Baptist University.

She lives in Little Rock with her husband, Bryan, their children Scarlett, Huck and George, and their golden retriever, Traveler.

William JONES, IV

What’s your secret to success?

I don’t know that I will ever feel like I’ve fully arrived at “success.” At every opportunity in my career, I do my best to prepare and finish strong. I also believe that giving back is a huge part of success. Whatever success my team has had, we do all we can to share that with the communities we belong to.

How did your education prepare you for your career?

The education that prepared me most for the role I have today was working from a young age. I don’t think there is anything that prepares you more for the world than real responsibility.

What’s an alternate path you could have taken, had things worked out differently?

I think I would have become an engineer like my grandfather. I’ve always loved creating and building things, and I am blessed that I get to do that every day with my family.

Who are your mentors or inspirations?

My inspirations have been my dad, Bill, and grandmother, Sissy. Growing up, I watched them transform a small log cabin into a multiregional brand with six locations and a strong vision for the future. When you get to witness something like that, it makes you believe that focus and hard work can lead to anything.

What is your leadership style?

I try to lead in a way that I would like to be led: Try hard, follow through on your promises, and lead by example. I aspire to be a leader whom others can depend on and one that my children will look up to.

In your experience, what is the secret to inspiring others to take action?

I believe the best way to inspire others is to take action. You can’t tell someone to confront problems without being willing to tackle those problems yourself.

COO, Sissy’s Log Cabin

| Patrick Schueck President & CEO Lexicon

Patrick Schueck is president and CEO of Lexicon Fabricators and Constructors, a leading provider of construction management, fabrication, erection, mechanical installation, golf course construction and plant management services, providing up to four million man-hours and 150,000 tons of steel annually. Under his leadership, the company has now grown to include Lexicon Industrial Constructors, Prospect Steel and Custom Metals, Heritage Links and Lexicon Energy Services.

During his tenure, Schueck has overseen many of Lexicon’s largest steel fabrication and erection contracts, including the expansion of the McCormick Center in Chicago; AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington; ThyssenKrupp Galvanizing Lines and Melt Shop in Calvert, Alabama; NASA Stennis A3 Test Stand in Mississippi; and numerous Nucor Corporation projects. He has also been instrumental in transforming Prospect Steel into the world’s leader in automated robotic fabrication.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Schueck gives his time freely to state nonprofit organizations. A three-time cancer survivor, he considers it a privilege to support Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where he is a member of the board of directors. He also serves on the boards for the American Institute of Steel Construction, Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas, Little Rock Regional Chamber’s Fifty for the Future and US Bank. In addition, he is a member of the American Contractors Insurance Group Executive Committee; National Steel Bridge Alliance Executive Committee; University of Arkansas College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, where he received his bachelor’s degree; and Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering. He is the former chairman of the American Red Cross Greater Arkansas Chapter.

Schueck and his wife, Jessica, are the proud parents of Mason, Ava, Hayden and Whitten.

| Dawn Scott

Sales Associate

The Janet Jones Company

orities in her career. “When I started working in my 20s, it was all about stories and fun and my career, and now it’s completely about how I can use this career to help,” she says. “I find the older I get, if there’s a component of service, it drives me to work harder.”

Scott grew up in Little Rock and knows local schools, churches, organizations and our beautiful community. She is a mom to a son and daughter, and they are members of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church. She serves on the Board of Directors for four Central Arkansas nonprofit organizations and is passionate about helping children in Arkansas foster care. Scott is inspired when she is helping others, and she is thrilled for the opportunity to assist clients with their real estate transactions, whether they are buying or selling. “I’m a local rental property owner, and I’m a licensed real estate agent. I’ve grown to love it, and I guess you could say, it runs in my blood. My grandfather was a real estate broker, and my uncle is a licensed broker in another state.”

| Rodney Showmar President & CEO Arkansas Federal Credit Union

Rodney

Showmar serves as President and CEO for Arkansas Federal Credit Union (AFCU), headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. AFCU is the 11th largest financial institution in Arkansas with over $2.1 billion in assets and 140,000+ members. Showmar began his career in credit unions with Arkansas Federal in 2001 as Vice President of Marketing, moving into the Chief Operating Officer role prior to his promotion to CEO. Today he works alongside 400+ passionate team members who are committed to “Be The Difference” and change the world we live in every day.

Dawn

Scott is one of the most respected, well-known, and trusted personalities in Central Arkansas. After an award-winning 25-year career in media, she joined The Janet Jones Company as a Sales Associate. Scott has been a reliable source of information for many years in our community, with thousands of viewers allowing her into their homes each night. But along with a more determined drive to be present with her kids, the biggest change Scott has seen in her reflection is a sturdy shift of pri-

Prior to joining Arkansas Federal in 2001, Showmar was employed for ten years in the retail industry as a Senior Buyer with Dillard’s Department Stores and Senior Market Research Analyst with Reliant Energy. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas where he earned a BSBA degree in Marketing Management and served as Captain on the University of Arkansas Cheerleading squad. Rodney earned his MBA from Capella University in February of 2015. Showmar is a graduate of the Consumer Bankers Associations Graduate School of Retail Bank Management.

Showmar is an Arkansas native and a 1986 graduate of Little Rock Catholic High School. Active in the local philanthropic and community activities, Showmar has served as a member of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council, Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, a lifetime member of Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s Committee for the Future, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Ronald McDonald House

Charities of Arkansas, North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Camp Robinson/Camp Pike Community Council, Junior Achievement of Arkansas Board of Directors, the Arkansas Credit Union League Board of Directors, and as an Honorary Commander of the 41st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base.

Showmar is married to his wife and best friend, Shelly, and they have one adult son, Brandon, who is a 2012 graduate of the University of Memphis.

| W.R. “Witt” Stephens

CEO & Co-chairman The Stephens Group

Wilton

“Witt” Stephens is CoFounder and Chief Executive Officer of The Stephens Group, LLC. The Stephens Group is the family office for Witt’s family as well as the family of his sister, Elizabeth Campbell. Unlike most other family offices, the firm operates a fully staffed professional organization specially dedicated to direct investing in or oversight of private companies.

Prior to the formation of Stephens Group, Witt oversaw the combined Stephens Family’s energy and natural resource investment activities. Witt continues to serve as Chairman of Stephens Natural Resources and its wholly owned subsidiaries. Stephens Natural Resources is one of the nation’s largest privately held exploration and production companies, as it expanded its exploration and production activities from the Arkoma Basin to the Western Anadarko Basin, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, South Texas and Louisiana.

Previously, as part of the combined Stephens family organization, he served as Senior Vice President of Stephens Production Company; Vice Chairman of SF Holding Corp. (formerly Stephens Group, Inc.); a member of the Executive Committee; and a director of the Board.

Currently, Witt is Co-Chairman of SF Holding Corp, a Board member of Summit Industrial and past Board member of Westrock Coffee, JV Industrial Services, First National Bank of Stuttgart, The Bank of North Arkansas and Hazen First State Bank.

Witt is a passionate outdoorsman and conservationist who is past Chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, past President and President Emeritus of the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation and past Board member of The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas. He has also served on the Board of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, as Chairman of the Grant County Museum Foundation and is a former Board member of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. Currently, he serves as a Trustee on the Board of Tall Timbers Research, Inc. and is on the Board of Summit Industrial. Witt is a member of the Arkan-

sas Outdoor Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame.

INFLUENCERS

Witt has been married to his wife, Carol, for 25 years and they have two children, Arden Stephens and Witt Stephens III.

| Lorrie Trogden President & CEO Arkansas Bankers Association

Lorrie

Trogden serves as the President and CEO of the Arkansas Bankers Association. She leads the Association’s strategic initiatives, including planning, member services, governance, and legislative affairs at the state and federal level.

She considers it an honor to serve Arkansas’ community banks who drive our state’s economy with over $147 billion in assets, 24,000 jobs, 140 thousand volunteer hours, and over $28 million in community donations. When Arkansas banks are successful, the state’s economy is successful. This was recognized by Gov. Asa Hutchinson when he appointed Trogden to the Economic Recovery task force in 2020, and again when she was tapped to travel with the Governor to meet with President Trump at the White House and discuss Arkansas small business PPP program successes.

In a recent state legislative session she worked with legislators on writing a bill that would strengthen banks’ ability to help prevent financial elder abuse. The new law has been successfully utilized by banks and the Attorney General’s office, already saving vulnerable Arkansans thousands of dollars. The law recently won the American Bankers Association Foundation’s Community Commitment Award for Protecting Older Americans.

Trogden has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, a Masters of Science in Operations Management, and is an American Society of Association Executives Certified Association Executive.

Trogden serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Graduate School of Banking at Madison, Wisconsin, a trustee for the Graduate School of Banking at LSU, Economics Arkansas Executive Committee, Arkansas Capital Corporation Executive Committee, State Alliance of Banking Associations Executive Committee, American BankPAC Board of Directors and the American Society of Association Executives Government Relations Committee.

| Matthew Waller, Ph.D. Dean

Sam

M.

Walton College of Business

Matthew A. Waller, Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, is dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, where he also serves as the Sam M. Walton Leadership Chair and a professor of Supply Chain Management.

Waller was the recipient of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ Distinguished Service Award in 2020 and is the former co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business Logistics. In addition to his work in academia, Waller is a board member of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute and was co-founder of Bentonville Associates Ventures and co-founder of Mercari Technologies.

Waller also is co-author of “The Definitive Guide to Inventory Management,” “Purple on the Inside: How J.B. Hunt Transport Set Itself Apart in a Field Full of Brown Cows,” “Integrating Blockchain into Supply Chain Management: A Toolkit for Practical Implementation,” “Values-Driven Authentic Leadership,” and “The Dean’s List: Leading a Modern Business School.”

| Sam Walls, III CEO

Arkansas Capital Corporation

Sam Walls, III has been with Arkansas Capital Corporation for almost 20 years and currently serves as its CEO.

Walls’ career started in the foundation and finance and insurance industries before joining ACC in 2003, where he was part of the team that expanded ACC’s project finance and entrepreneurial support efforts including the deployment of over $400 million in federal New Market Tax Credits, raising $160 million in EB-5 capital, and the growth of the Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan competition.

Walls is a graduate of Little Rock Catholic High School; Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas; and the Bowen School of Law in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently he is serving as a board member of the National New Market Tax Credit Coalition, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, and the Mount St. Mary’s Academy Foundation.

Arkansas Capital is a non-depository Community Development Financial Institution that has helped provide over $2 billion in capital through small business loans and project finance. Walls and his team at Arkansas Capital continue to work closely with state and local leaders to further economic development initiatives.

| Alice Walton Founder Alice L. Walton Foundation

Philanthropist and arts patron

Alice Walton is committed to increasing access to arts, improving education, enhancing health and well-being, and advancing economic opportunity for all. Walton is dedicated to promoting diversity and access in all of her philanthropic work.

Walton founded Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as a nonprofit charitable organization for all to enjoy. Since its opening in 2011, the museum has welcomed more than 11 million visitors to its building and grounds, with free admission for all.

In 2020, Crystal Bridges opened a satellite location, the Momentary, focusing on contemporary, visual and performing arts, and also offering free admission.

In 2017, Walton established the Art Bridges Foundation to expand access to American art across the nation. Art Bridges provides funding and support to get art out of storage and into communities. The foundation provides funding to museums to expand their art offerings through temporary exhibitions, art collection loans, and learning/engagement programs that connect with local communities.

That same year, Walton also founded the Alice L. Walton Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization based in Bentonville and committed to increasing access to the arts, improving education, enhancing healthn and supporting basic needs in Arkansas and beyond.

Walton’s transformative experiences in the arts led to an interest in wellness, and how art, nature, and the spaces around us shape and improve our lives. In 2019, Walton established the Whole Health Institute, a nonprofit organization that addresses physical, mental, emotional and social well-being by working with health systems, medical professional and employers to redesign health care delivery.

In addition, in 2021 she founded the nonprofit Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, which is in the early stages of construction and seeking accreditation. The school will offer a four-year, medical degree-granting program that integrates conventional medicine with holistic principles. Taught by leading medical practitioners and scientific minds, the first-of-its-kind medical school will help students rise to the health challenges of the 21st century with a focus on physical, mental and emotional health.

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| Steuart Walton, J.D. Co-founder Runway Group

Steuart Walton is the co-founder of Runway Group, a Bentonvillebased holding company that invests in real estate, outdoor initiatives, hospitality and other businesses in Northwest Arkansas to make the region the best place to live. An avid pilot, Walton is also the founder and chairman of Game Composites, LLC, which designs and manufactures small composite aircraft.

Walton sits on the boards of numerous businesses and organizations, including Walmart, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Flipkart, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Walton is also a dedicated philanthropist with a great love for NWA. Through the Runway Group, he and his brother, Tom, have made major investments in the forms of Artists 360, The Momentary, the development of nearly 1,000 miles of trails, tree planting and many other economic development, environmental and diversity, equity, and inclusion projects in the region.

Walton previously worked for Allen & Overy, LLP in London, then later in Walmart’s international division, focusing on mergers and acquisitions. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

| Troy Wells President & CEO Baptist Health

Troy Wells is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Baptist Health, the largest health care system in Arkansas comprising 11 hospitals, a large integrated physician enterprise, a retirement village and long term care facility, state-wide home health and hospice agencies, a joint venture Health Maintenance Organization and multiple for-profit subsidiaries. Wells joined Baptist Health in 2006 and assumed the role of President and Chief Executive in June 2014, becoming only the third person to hold this title since World War II.

Wells earned a master’s degree in health-services administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Wells is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Arkansas Executives Forum, Young Presidents Organization, and Fifty for the Future. He serves as a director on multiple boards, including Goodwill Industries of Arkansas

which he currently serves as chair, Parkway Village, Inc., the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Rotary Club of Little Rock. Troy is married to Mary Cole Wells, and they reside with their two children (Catherine and Charles) in Little Rock. He is a member of Calvary Baptist Church.

| Alonzo Williams, M.D. Medical Director Arkansas Diagnostic Center

INFLUENCERS

Serving

as Medical Director for the Arkansas Diagnostic Center for over 25 years, Alonzo Williams, M.D. has always been diligent in pursuing the latest gastroenterology research and techniques in order to ensure excellent care for every patient.

Dr. Williams serves as a gastroenterology consultant for hospitals throughout Little Rock. Since 1984, he has been affiliated with major health care systems such as Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, UAMS, Arkansas Diagnostic Center and Kanis Endoscopy Center. He is also an active member of a number of prominent professional organizations including the Arkansas State Medical Board, where he was appointed by three governors for a total of 24 consecutive years.

Dr. Williams earned medical degrees from Arkansas State University and UAMS, where he is now a clinical instructor. He established the state’s first surgery center specializing in gastroenterology in 1989, and through opening his own business, found the opportunity to develop an outreach campaign through radio, television, health fairs and frequent guest speaking in churches throughout Arkansas.

JOE T. FORD ARKANSAS VISIONARY

By Dwain Hebda

Through the wall of windows flanking one side of his modest office at Westrock Coffee headquarters in Little Rock, Joe T. Ford glanced out at a commotion coming down the hall. His great-granddaughter, a toddler on tiptoe, had just come around the corner to spy her grandad, Joe’s son Scott, who’d darted out of an office, hunkered down like a major league catcher, and invited her to run into his arms.

Ford leaned back in his chair to watch, as if floating on the child’s peals of laughter.

“There’s little Turner,” he said, not taking his eyes off the scene. “Now I’ll tell you a little story about Turner. She’s named after my brother. My brother’s name was Justin Turner; died young.”

Then, to no one in particular, he added softly, “And she happened to be born on my birthday. I can’t explain that.”

Such scenes, impromptu and momentary though they may be, summarize the life and true loves of Joe T. Ford, a name synonymous with business and leadership that ranks among the titans of Arkansas entrepreneurs. Best-known for growing telecommunications company Alltel, Ford’s guidance took the company from a modest-but-aspiring landline company to a national contender, at one time the fifth-largest wireless provider in the country.

Alltel’s ascent confounded critics and

made Ford a wealthy man, but it is the people he’s encountered – both on the job and after hours at home – that he considers of most value and the secret to every success and happiness he’s enjoyed.

“Any company is only as good as its people,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, if you don’t have good people, you won’t have a good company. You just have to treat people the way you’d like to be treated, and it works.”

If it seems a remarkably simple philosophy, it is, by design. It’s the simple principles that best stand the test of time and change, after all. Even when the telecommunications industry took off spinning in a hundred different directions and merger mania was at its highest and billions in borrowed capital hung in the

balance, the calmest channel has always been that navigated not by complacency nor compulsion, but in consistency of ethic, effort and expertise.

“Complacency is when you’ve got something and you’re happy. You’re content,” Ford said. “I’ve seen people that are content, and they make a nice living. I was never content. I always wanted us to do more. I always felt that the more we did, that gave somebody another opportunity. There’s somebody out here that’s better than you think he is, if he can just get exposed to the right opportunity. That’s often the case.

“As we built companies, we tried to get people with their heads above water and move them up. I always wanted them tilting their head up. I didn’t want them

Joe T. Ford with his parents, Archie and Ruby in 1942

to get their nose underwater, but I wanted to challenge everybody so that they’d have to tilt up just a little bit to keep their head above water. And when you do that, it’s amazing what people will accomplish.” ****

Joe T. Ford was born in Conway, June 24, 1937, to Archie and Ruby Lee (Watson) Ford. His father worked for the state department of education and was constantly campaigning for the betterment of education in Arkansas. Among his achievements, to provide kindergarten throughout the state’s public school system, free textbooks in high schools and the education of disabled children in the public schools. Known for his penchant for visiting primary and secondary schools personally, he kept his finger on the pulse of what was happening in classrooms statewide and what was needed.

Named state commissioner of education in 1953, Archie Ford would serve five governors and come out on the right side of history when it mattered most. The Central High School crisis in 1957, widely regarded as an important flashpoint in the Civil Rights movement, saw Gov. Orval Faubus attempt to defy federal integration mandates. Ford did not support the governor’s actions, which earned him enemies within the administration and the state legislature, who attempted to oust him from his post. But the outcry from school administrators and teachers statewide saved the day, and the elder Ford retired in 1978 as the longest-serving commissioner in Arkansas history.

Ford took several lessons from his father’s experience to heart, including the sanctity of one’s word, of standing up for what’s right and of courage under fire. Combining these with the square dealing and work ethic imbued by his cotton-farming grandparents —

FORD ON MAINTAINING INTEGRITY:

Too many people face issues and won’t come to a conclusion. I can name individuals I respect because they always did what they thought was right. They made decisions based on what they thought was the right thing to do as opposed to what they themselves might like to do, and there’s a difference in all that. People who stay with their real beliefs are the people that you can count on.

Photo by Chris Davis

FORD ON LOYALTY:

I met Jack Stephens in 1958, and he’d helped us along through the years. I went to see him in 2005, and the last conversation I had with him, I walked in, and he said, “I’ve had a lot of fun with you.” I said, “Jack, I’ve had a lot of fun with you.” Then he said, “Joe, most of the money that I’ve made in life, I’ve made by betting on people. I bet on you the first day we met.” Jack was being a friend to me, he was always a friend to me. It reminds me of when I was a kid about 10 or 12, my dad told me, ‘Never trade an old friend for a new one. You can make new friends, but never trade a friend.’ I’ve tried to keep that as a principle in all that I’ve done.

and the deep and abiding faith that nourished them all — helped shape him from a very early age.

His natural intellect got him in the solid “B” strata, though looking back he admits he could have done better in the classroom. He was a three-sport athlete for Conway High School, playing football, basketball and running track for the Wampus Cats while honing a competitive streak that stoked his later ambitions. He also gained early the primary in-

gredient for all of his future happiness, a sparkling blonde named Jo Ellen Wilbourn. The two became a couple senior year of high school and stayed that way — through college, through the high stakes of his business ventures, through his years in the Arkansas Senate (1967 to 1982) and, beginning with their marriage in 1959, through the ups and downs of family life.

Initially enrolling at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro on a basketball

scholarship, Ford transferred to the University of Arkansas his sophomore year. He graduated in 1959 with a degree in business and having discovered a penchant for economics. He got a job with Allied Telephone Company as a Yellow Pages ad salesman as he worked off his Army ROTC commitment, six months at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and seven and a half years in the Arkansas National Guard.

Ford’s natural skills as a salesman, combined with a knack for seeing the big picture, helped him scale the ladder at Allied Telephone and Electric, one of hundreds of mom-and-pop companies offering telephone service. In the years that followed, Ford would broker deals that grew Allied and eventually birthed Alltel, following purchase of Ohio-based Mid Continent in 1983, just in time for the dismantling of the Bell System a year later.

Shepherding the company through more than 250 mergers and acquisitions and fending off competition from much larger players, Ford guided Alltel expertly in the coming decades. He retired

Left to Right: Will Ford, Scott, Ford, Joe T. Ford, Sam Ford, Joseph Ford

Photo by Chris Davis

FORD ON SERVANT LEADERSHIP:

In business, when you talk about, ‘It’s not personal,’ you’re forgetting the entire package, which is the people. It’s their lives, it’s their families, it’s their livelihood, it’s the community. If all you say is, by all accounts, “Did I make these numbers?” without caring about what happens to the people who helped you get there, that’s not how you lead. Leading means including everybody. People work with us; they don’t work for us.

as Alltel chairman in 2002, at which time the company boasted millions of wireless subscribers, thousands of employees and billions in annual sales.

***

In more recent years, Ford joined Scott in launching Westrock Coffee on the same principles that guided his steps in the telecommunications business. That is, lead with a servant mentality, pursue a noble cause and work harder than the next guy, principles that have leached into all who have served alongside of him

“Let’s talk about how we got into the coffee business,” Ford said. “Scott and his wife had been on mission trips, helping orphans in Rwanda. Went down there to see them, and I think they assigned a fourth grader to kind of speak for the orphans. The kid asked him, ‘Why did you come halfway around the world to see us?’ [Scott] said, ‘Because I’m going to make your life better than your parents’ lives.’

“Scott met with the [Rwandan] president who asked him, ‘I can give political freedom, religious freedom, I can’t give economic freedom. It takes someone to be a mentor to teach capitalism.’ And then he says, ‘Will you help me?’ Scott said yes. Well, he didn’t know if coffee grew like pineapples or peanuts.

“Yet, here it is. We’ve got a multimillion-dollar business; we’re going to have a worldwide business here in short order. I think within five years, we’ll have the biggest company in the world that does what we do. And if you get back to the real basics of it, it’s because the man said, ‘Will you help me?’ And by ‘helping me,’ he meant hundreds of thousands of

farmers that he’s responsible for. That’s how [Westrock] got started, and it’s an amazing story.”

Though Ford enjoys a role far more consultative than his day-to-day duties of the Alltel days, there’s still no denying the influence of his long-held leadership principles, alive and well at Westrock Coffee.

“I believe in three basic things we should have in business,” he said. “One is a quality product. If you don’t have quality, it’s hard to sell. Two is competi tive pricing; you’ve got to be competitive in what you’re doing. And three is out standing service. And I really believe in service. Service is key.

“My guess is you’re going to go to a clothing store or you’re going to go buy a car where you’re comfortable dealing. I want that in everything that we do. I want that with every customer. I want the ability to take care of them.”

Such fundamentals have made the Ford Way nearly impervious to the vagaries of industry or era. Asked if Alltel could have been built in today’s world, he nodded thoughtfully.

w“What is different than in times past is the product; back then, we didn’t have a phone that could get you an airline ticket or hotel room or whatever you wanted to do. But the basics of integrity and treating people right, motivating people and all those types of things haven’t changed. It’s just how you tweak it and what you do with it.”

Such is the apt mantra of a life welllived, where the inevitable setbacks in life pale next to the extraordinary human drive to rise and come ahead. Nurture

that in others, Ford said, and the most audacious dreams and lofty goals can be achieved.

“I never would have dreamed how my life turned out,” he said. “When I was a kid, I would have been really content to be an 18-wheel truck driver. I had no idea my life would take the path it took. No idea. Never dreamed it. And if you’d asked me to write down what I’d like it to be, I never would have thought to write any of this down. No concept.

“I just tell people, ‘I’m a peddler.’ But I also felt building a business was more important than just running a business. I believed in trying to expand as we could, hoping to build something we could make a comfortable living off of and where the people who worked with us could do well in life. I didn’t expect anybody to get rich, I just wanted us all to do well.”

CHANGES, afoot and afoul

By Mark Carter

College football’s new wild West

The Arkansas Razorbacks suited up just 48 scholarship players for their Liberty Bowl matchup with Kansas last month.

The NCAA, of course, allows for 85. In this new era of college football, such postseason attrition is normal. NIL, the transfer portal and NFL-ready players opting out to prepare for the draft have transformed how “the game” is played.

That the Hogs won the game, the actual football game, in Memphis — and multiple times, despite the creativity displayed by the officiating and replay crews — speaks to the job Sam Pittman does as head coach and the fight displayed by those Hogs who “opted” to suit up.

Many teams now show up for these December bowl games as a shell of their former selves. And an unregulated, uncapped NIL environment has transformed the process of buying players. Bagman meets ad man.

The transfer portal, which enables players to transfer to another team and maintain immediate eligibility, has opened up its own wild West. With an extra year of eligibility afforded all players due to COVID, some Division 1 players are on their fourth and fifth college teams.

Casual fans may wonder where the NCAA is in all of this. Marshal Matt Dillon got the heck out of Dodge. That’s where. The portal and NIL have been abandoned by the NCAA to the whims of the new wild West, enforcement evolving from symptom of severe OCD to afterthought for the folks in Indianapolis. It’s as if the NCAA said, “Fine. You want player compensation? You want us to ease transfer rules? You got it.” Then threw its hands up in the air and sulked away in a tantrum.

The phenomenon known as NIL, which stands for Name, Image and Likeness, has proven truly transformational for college

sports. Maybe not discovery-of-fire transformational, but close. Along the lines of the cotton gin, the forward pass, the musket.

It’s changed the game, and not all for the better, as schools figure out ways to bend if not break what rules for it that exist.

But change was necessary, regardless. NCAA athletes existed as indentured servants. Sure, they received access to a free college education and a path to professional ball, but university athletic departments were reaping billions off of players’ — you guessed it — names, images and likenesses. And players weren’t getting a cut.

Take former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, who a decade ago caught the wrath of the NCAA in the runup to his Heisman Trophy campaign by accepting $33,000 from two men to sign thousands of autographs they would later sell on the open market.

Manziel knew it was illegal to do so at the time and admitted as much, but the NCAA’s hypocrisy was exposed. A college kid, like him or not, can’t make some money off his own fame?

That hypocrisy was placed under a spotlight after ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas came to

Photo courtesy of U of A

Manziel’s defense on Twitter. He posted an image of an Aggie football jersey, with Manziel’s number, listed for sale on the NCAA’s website. It was clearly a Manziel jersey, and the NCAA clearly was profiting off of Manziel’s fame.

In 2021, Manziel explained how it went down for Barstool Sports.

“This guy comes up behind me and was like, ‘Yo, how would you want to make three grand?’ I turn around, I’m like, ‘F— yeah, bro’. I got like 65 bucks in my bank account. I’m waiting on that beginning-ofthe-month January stipend check.

“So, I take this guy’s number down, we’re doing it all sneaky, we don’t want to get caught. We’re trying to learn from everybody else who got caught.”

They did get caught, but the NCAA got exposed as well.

Eventually, players sued the NCAA for the right to earn money off their own names or images and won. And the Supreme Court’s majority opinion ruling for the players wasn’t kind to the NCAA.

Plus, more than 29,000 former college players whose images had previously been used in Electronic Arts (EA) college football video games received a class action judgment of $40 million, which came out to an average of $1,200 per athlete with a cap of $7,200 depending on how closely their image was used, per Navigate Research and AthleticDirectorU.

By way of comparison, the players associations for the NFL and NBA receive more than $120 million in combined annual revenue from licensing deals with video game manufacturers EA and Sony and from trading card makers. That comes out to about $48,000 annually per player. (And these numbers don’t account for the latest version of the much more lucrative NBA 2K.)

Now that college athletes can profit off themselves within the rules, schools offering the biggest NIL deals are the ones winning the new bidding wars for high school recruits, as well as portal prizes.

One prominent program supporter from the West Coast told On3 that NIL is enabling unscrupulous

boosters essentially to play fantasy football with college athletes.

The transfer portal opening up in early December has added to the chaos. The aftermath of the regular season’s final weekend now is dominated by three factors: players leaving their teams for the portal, the early national signing day for high school recruits — now the primary signing day — and the announcements from those still eligible players harboring aspirations of pro ball that their college careers are done.

That’s a lot to juggle.

Indeed, December is the wild West on steroids. Bowl season — the early bowl season anyway — has been relegated to an early spring practice for most of the 84 of 130 FBS teams that qualify.

Once upon a time, college players treated eligibility like gold; they wanted to pan every last nugget. Wearing the uniform meant something. Not that it doesn’t for those star players who opt out of bowl games to work on enhancing their draft status. But times and priorities have changed.

Teams once could count on a player for a full four seasons. These days, coaches are lucky to squeeze out a couple. And while affording players the ability to freely transfer was the right call, the portal has coddled those not satisfied with their playing time nor willing to put in the extra work.

Like NIL, the portal awaits some tweaking. HawgSports publisher Trey Biddy has suggested players get one free transfer, perhaps after their sophomore year, and the portal should remain closed until the end of the spring semester.

But the NCAA has retreated into the hills. It’ll likely take some sort of Power 5 separation from the NCAA — for football, at least — to bring about any real changes or enforcement.

And then there’s conference realignment, the atomic monster that wouldn’t die. Once Texas, OU, USC and UCLA jump to the sport’s kingpin conferences, will more dominos fall?

Will there be some sort of megaconference breakaway? Will NIL and the transfer portal level playing fields or enable the bluebloods to further entrench?

Lots of questions in college football these days. Not as many corresponding answers, though.

GETTING OUR

DUCKS IN A ROW

By Steve Bowman

There is a recipe to duck hunting in Arkansas. A recipe that culminates into an emotional, addictive experience for hunters like no other.

It comes from the anticipation on a dark boat ride under the arms of oak trees lining their course like soldiers holding their sabers and creating a path to something special in front of them.

They see it in a rice field as the sun begins to paint the sky with light in a daily masterpiece that is never quite the same.

They hear it listening to the music of a natural world in a cacophony of duck quacks, whistling wings, hail calls and feeding chatter that combined create a symphony of music that can raise the emotions of hunters of all ages.

They feel the excitement when ducks come in squadrons working in unison, banking together, greenheads popping in the sunlight like emeralds on top of wings. It is a sight that has

mesmerized hunters forever.

Hunters are drawn to this scene and assume a relationship with these wild creatures, talking and singing to them with their calls while sharing the same wet and muddy environment.

That relationship is a key component to what makes Arkansas special. It’s a relationship that goes much deeper than a heart-stopping scene of mallards working their way through the arms of pin oaks or across the levees of golden rice stubble.

For the mallard it’s not the calls they are falling to, rather the ground the caller is standing on, and what it is beneath that blanket of water.

There is a recipe to creating all of that. And in Arkansas, it is changing. The cake is excellent when baked just right, not so good when some of the ingredients are forgotten.

That can be a big deal to a state that enjoys, according to the

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC), a $70 million economic benefit each year from the duck season that runs 60 days. A $1 million a day influx to the state cries for the recipe to be just right.

Arkansas is the Duck Hunting Capital of the World, a title that has been ingrained in the state’s reputation since the early 1900s.

It’s a title many have taken for granted, with many assuming the only ingredient to great duck hunting was to just add water. In some instances, the simple idea is expanded to include rice and acorns. According to Mickey Heitmeyer the recipe is far more complicated. Heitmeyer is the country’s foremost waterfowl expert when it comes to waterfowl and wetland biology, growing the reputation as Dr. Duck. He has helped transform thinking about wetland and waterfowl habitat for more than four decades.

“We have rice fields, and we have timber left, but it’s not the same as it used to be,’’ Heitmeyer said. “The rice fields provide only a fraction of the food that they used to have. There are still trees there, but they’re not the same trees, and they’re not healthy. We still have some good quality forest, and I think we’re doing a better job, thankfully some education has occurred, but still so many people take advantage of it. You can’t just go put water on a bunch of trees and think you’re going to kill ducks. It’s just not going to work.”

Heitmeyer has been leading the way on education around the needs of migrating ducks. But the “just add water” to “rice and acorns” mantra is slow to overcome within the rank and file. In the last few years, he has been part of a group of biologists studying if duck distribution has changed in the winter.

The answer to that question has implications to Arkansas. Duck hunters with more than a decade of experience of getting their feet wet in the chase of mallards have all seen changes, but are mostly unaware of why those changes are taking place. In their mind, the state has all the necessary ingredients: water, rice and acorns.

They believe the changes are the fault of something else causing them to cast blame on everything from the government to the equipment young hunters use, from spinning wing decoys to sky-busting shells. The truth lies elsewhere. And most of the time, it is right under their feet in the untapped potential of the muddy ground they are standing on.

“Duck distribution has changed in the winter!’’ Heitmeyer said. “There’s a lot of different factors involved with it. But there are what I call the big three. The landscape has changed from the north to the south. The climate has certainly changed, you wouldn’t know it this year when we had the real cold weather, and wet a little bit early. But the trend line is certainly there. The climate is changing.

And then the last thing is hunting pressure. When you lose

habitat, or you don’t have as good a habitat, and every pot of water’s got a gun sticking out of it. Well, after a while, the birds are going to go someplace else.”

The coupling of those three things jumble-up the recipe in harsh ways. And many of them have caught land managers and hunters flat-footed.

Hunting pressure has always been present in Arkansas. It comes with the reputation. But even that has changed or ramped up in ways. And like most things in America, someone has found a way to capitalize on that pressure.

“The economics of hunting, as you know, sometimes we don’t like to talk about it, but you and I know it’s there. I mean, the amount of pressure that’s there to sell stuff,” Heitmeyer said. “And now with social media every kid in the world thinks they can be a duck commander or whatever. And we have machines and equipment and things that you and I didn’t have when we were growing up, and the duck has no place to go to get away from things.”

That’s where the other two of the big three take its toll. Regardless of where you sit on the climate change debate, there is no debate that climate does change, whether it’s cyclical or for other reasons. Duck hunters three decades ago were aware of the “snow line,” which was basically from middle Missouri north, an area of the country that you could count on being covered with snow during the winter months. From a duck hunting perspective, that means all the available food would be covered, leaving the only course for a duck to head further south, primarily Arkansas.

But snowfall in those critical areas has decreased since 1930, when records first started to be kept. Meanwhile farming practices have changed drastically. To top it off, when Arkansas waves the flag of economic value to the tune of $70 million a year, other states pay attention. Unencumbered by the “just add water” mantra, they are managing and building better habitat all with the idea of getting a piece of the cake using their own ingredients.

“We never heard of corn being grown in the quantity it is in South Dakota, North Dakota, now even in Canada, until 10, 20 years ago,” Heitmeyer said. “Obviously rice has shifted. There’s a lot more rice growing now in Missouri than there was 20 years ago. And then a variety of things changed too, like with rice and corn and everything else. We have newer varieties earlier, maturing, better harvesting methods and equipment, and all that.

“At the end of the day, by the time the mallard gets to Arkansas, there’s really not a lot left out there. There’s a rice field, but

there’s not much food. And when they get shot up all the time down there and the harvest rates go up, it’s only a matter of time that the number of birds going there is going to decrease.

“When they have enough water and food and temperatures are still OK why would they go south? I mean, there’s nothing that says the duck has to go to Arkansas.”

That last statement is almost blasphemous to an Arkansas duck hunter, but the truth nonetheless. With all these changes, Heitmeyer believes in order to make duck season better while stemming the impacts of the big three, fundamental changes need to start taking place in Arkansas. The financial implications are huge and worth it.

The first step is making the state more hospitable to traveling ducks, which mostly revolves around habitat improvements with a healthy dash of education from every layer of duck hunter from the rank and file to the upper crust. The recipe is no longer rice and acorns and just add water, but attention to when and how long water is flooded and how deep, as well as with an attention to what can be done with rice fields after the harvest.

Some of these things are in play already. For example, already several duck clubs best described as Green Tree Reservoir clubs are, with Heitmeyer’s direction, intensively managing their trees from roots to the leaves. This means the right type of trees and the right amount of water, along with many other things. But to explain the depth of importance to the minutiae, when you walk through the woods of flooded timber, you will see floating and sunken, leaves in varying degrees of decomposition. It doesn’t look like much at first glance; but as each of those leaves breaks down they produce energy or fuel within the water that further creates an eventual food chain of organisms, commonly called invertebrates. The presence of high-protein invertebrates is critical for wintering waterfowl in building up reserves to get them back to the breeding grounds. They are especially important for the hen, to build a strong eggshell to ensure that once there, she can continue to produce a clutch of eggs.

Something as simple as degrading oak leaves rarely enters the minds of duck hunters but their importance to the recipe is huge.

And farmers, always leading the way in conservation, are getting involved. In Arkansas County, Jay Coker, Rick Hampton and George Dunklin’s farms are basically adjacent to each other and in many ways manage their farms in concert with waterfowl in mind.

a lifelong hunter, farmer and current Chairman of

Coker,

“

When they have enough water and food and temperatures are still okay, why would they go south? I mean, there’s nothing that says the duck has to go to Arkansas.”

Producers Rice Mill, points to the fact that those earlier maturing varieties of rice, also provide the potential for a ratoon crop or second-growth rice. If left standing after harvest, the rice will produce another panicle or head of rice that will have mature grains on them, potentially up to 30 bushels per acre or 1350 pounds of food per acre. There is added value in keeping the stalks of plant in shallow water as possible, which subsequently grows the invertebrates (mosquito larvae, sow bugs, spiny-headed worms, etc.) in the same way as the decaying leaves. Other farms are doing the same but more need to get on board.

“The decision a farmer has to make is based on a balance of economics versus conservation,” Coker said. “Is it better for his financial footprint to go ahead and do his land prep in the fall and get his fields better prepared for the next years planting season? Or is there incentive for him to leave the stubble undisturbed and provide waterfowl habitat?”

For today’s farmer, there is a cost to delaying tillage, the stubble doesn’t degrade as quickly and it takes more time and resources (tractors, equipment, labor, fuel) in the spring to prepare a seedbed. The levees that helped hold the irrigation water during the growing season, and are required to be left standing to provide winter flood water for waterfowl also have to be dealt with. They must be knocked down and smoothed in order to have a level field for the next season’s crop.

Other crops like corn and beans don’t require levees. They are furrow irrigated and require a smooth surface. After the harvest, a farmer either knocks down the stubble and smooths the ground in the fall or winter, or he has to do it in the spring.

“The more work you push into spring, the more your window shrinks with regards to getting the crops planted in a timely

manner,” Coker said. “Thirty days delaying of planting beans could easily cost the farmer 20 bushels an acre or basically $280 an acre. That could be his entire profit.”

That’s where many of the issues lie, the balance of needed crops and better habitat for wildlife and waterfowl. There aren’t easy answers to the questions of how to blend it all together.

The AGFC is beating the drum for a $15 million conservation tax-credit that would help incentivize land owners of all types to manage and create better wildlife and waterfowl habitat. The wheels of change move slowly.

“Some actions or tasks are simple and effective, such as closing pipes or blocking ditches to catch excess water and flood certain areas,” Coker said. “Others are more complex such as building levees, installing drainage structures, delaying tillage and more. But with public-private partnerships and other incentives such as tax credits, government-backed cost-share programs and more, it can help push the landowner and the farmer in the direction of increasing habitat. Economic returns to time and trouble go a long way towards getting people involved and active.

“If that’s not enough, imagine the thought of our youth not ever getting to experience the sight of mallard ducks circling a rice field or dodging tree limbs as they land in flooded areas.”

That thought is what drives those like Coker and Heitmeyer to continue pushing for a different mindset for everyone else who dons camouflage in the fall or just likes to see the wonders of a waterfowl migration.

“I’ve told a lot of people that in the future, whether you kind of like it or not, it’s going to require better management, both of the habitat and people, because the days of just going out, putting water on the ground, those days are over,” Heitmeyer said. “We know a lot about what the ducks need and when they need it and where. And it’s going to take the AGFC to make improvements, the Fish and Wildlife Service to make improvements, duck clubs to make improvements. And the general hunter’s going to have to accept and learn that for the greater good of everybody, that certain things are going to have to happen.

“If not, the good clubs are going to stay good, the mediocre clubs are going to struggle, and the ones that were kind of marginal, they’re going to fall out, just because they can’t compete. And the ducks, well, they are going to go where the habitat is.”

It’s an old recipe, and it bears repeating: The cake is excellent when baked just right, not so good when some of the ingredients are forgotten.

The Art of the Meal

By Dwain Hebda

If you were around in the mid-1970s in Little Rock, you are fortunate enough to remember one of the most remarkable entries in the city’s fine dining history. Talk to anyone who was there, and they’ll tell you Jacques & Suzanne was not only as good as it got but will argue to sundown it was as good or better than anything that’s ever been since.

“I think it really opened up a lot of people’s minds about good food and good wine,” said Chris Cranford, director and editor at Cranford Co., the Little Rock advertising firm he shares with his brothers, Ross and Jay. “I think that really expanded Little Rock’s culinary culture, which, to me, is what was so special about the story.”

Cranford confesses to never having experienced Jacques & Suzanne firsthand, which is one thing that makes his recently released short documentary “Elevated: How Jacques & Suzanne Lifted Little Rock’s Cuisine” so outstanding. The film details the backstory of the restaurant through the eyes of the people who were there and for whom the place was home, both professionally and personally.

“What was fascinating to me about the story, in interviewing some of these guys that had come in, was it presented itself as this story of

the American Dream,” Cranford said. “I’d only gotten a hint of that early on, but it still hadn’t resonated with me as being such a big part of the story. When I started to hear these guys talk a little bit more about that, it just presented itself in those interviews. And you’re just like, it’s gold.”

The film brings together a collection of principles in the story, including co-owners Louis Petit, Chef Paul Bash and Kathy Goss, as well as former chefs Denis Seyer and Jacques Hortot and maitres’d Peter Marti and Beat Kotoun who share their experiences with the seminal restaurant.

“There were like, five of us from Europe,” Seyer said in the film. “They had an ad in the paper, Swiss paper, specializing in hotel business. We didn’t even know where we were going because the ad read, ‘mid-America.’ It was kind of a little shock when we got here, to say the least.

“All I knew is the restaurant’s going to be on the tallest building in Little Rock at the time. So, we were all like, ‘Oh man, you’re going to have a great view from the second story.’”

The vision came from namesakes Jacques and Suzanne Treton, who’d been lured here by the opportunity to develop a restaurant on the 30th floor of the then-First Commercial Bank Building, now the Regions Bank Building. Whatever culture shock the staff experienced was quickly assuaged by the warm reception they got from locals.

“The people were extremely friendly,” Hortot said in the film. “I fell in love with the country and the people.”

“When we came here, we were like, received fantastic by everybody,” Seyer said. “Not only the little guy, but the big guy, everybody opened the door.”

The coat-and-tie-required restaurant was an immediate hit, orchestrated by the tuxedo-clad Louis Petit and his successors out front and dutifully served by Best and his expert staff working in the custom-designed kitchen.

“Every night was like a symphony,” Petit said. “We were promoting the art of living.”

Diners of the day no doubt will remember the souffles, chateaubriand escoffier, rack of lamb provencale with tableside garnishes and house-made pastries as particular favorites, washed down with fine wine and enjoyed under custom Italian crystal chandeliers.

“One of the best recipes was the escargot that we did,” Best said in the film. “People loved that butter sauce so much that they would say, ‘We’d like to order the snails, but hold the snails.’”

“It was richer than the cuisine is today, of course,” Petit added. “Why is it so good? It was cream and butter and more butter.”

Jacques & Suzanne garnered prestigious honors, such as the Travel Holiday Award, Mobile Travel Guide Four Star Award, recommendation by Gourmet Magazine, and in 2017, induction into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame. But more than that, it became a place of connection and community in ways most restaurants don’t. Staff-

Classic French cooking techniques, the finest ingredients and impeccable service were the hallmarks of Jacques & Suzanne, named for its original owners Jacques and Suzanne Treton, the center couple pictured second and third from left.

ers and diners shared memorable stories in the film, from Best being laid out attempting to roust an unruly customer to regulars Tim and Angela Childress getting married there.

“You see people today and they’ll say, ‘Well, we did this at Jacques & Suzanne’s, we got engaged at Jacques & Suzanne’s, we had our anniversary at Jacques & Suzanne’s,’ you know,” Bash said. “And even today people will say, ‘There’s never been a place like Jacques & Suzanne, and probably never will.’ So, we were very fortunate.”

Kotoun said in the film, “There is a saying in America about the American Dream.” “The American Dream is alive. I lived the American Dream. I still live the American Dream. This establishment, Jacques & Suzanne, gave many of us the jumping board, the opportunity to have very, very successful careers. And for that, I’m indebted to this establishment, to this management team, for the rest of my life.”

It’s been nearly 40 years since the award-winning restaurant closed its doors, meaning there are likely more people who know Jacques & Suzanne by legend than by any sort of direct gastronomical memory. That sort of aging tends to exaggerate the flavors of the truth, making the film’s interviews important as a historical record, capturing a time and place never to be seen again.

“My dad [legendary Little Rock adman Wayne Cranford] had his agency in that same building,” Chris Cranford said. “I like to think of it as kind of the Mad Men era, too. It was where they could go have business lunches, even martini lunches.

The film brings together a collection of principles in the story including co-owners Louis Petit, Chef Paul Bash and Kathy Goss, as well as former chefs Denis Seyer and Jaques Hortot and maitre d’s Peter Marti and Beat Kotoun who share their experiences with the seminal restaurant.

“As Louis Petit said, the evening started even before you got there, because you had to dress up for dinner. Going into it, you were already investing in this thing, that it was going to be a special night out kind of deal whereas now, you can eat anywhere in pretty much whatever you want to wear. It was certainly a different era.”

Watching the film, one cannot help but be struck at how well the look of the restaurant holds up, with only hairstyles and patron attire betraying its vintage. This is particularly unexpected given the radical changes in the fine dining industry of late, which, in many places, looks nothing like the archetype. Indeed, the widening circles of time, taste and trend have carried the fine dining experience through some strange and wonderful places since the Jacques & Suzanne heyday, when the chef was the headliner and the patrons the audience. In today’s market, the balance of power has shifted.

High-end restaurants are still an expression of the people behind them, but are also much more beholding to what the public will allow from menu to prices. In this way, the fine dining landscape is very different than what it was in the 1970s, 1990s, or even a couple of months before the COVID pandemic shifted the industry’s tectonic plates, setting off a tsunami that swept away old ways of thinking and forever altered the dining shoreline.

The fine dining category that’s grown up since is more democratic than ever, largely as a means of survival. According to Food & Bever-

age Insider, diners are clamoring to reconnect over a meal, and restaurants are more than happy to do what they must to get them after the choppy waters of the past three years pulled so many asunder.

TouchBistro, a seller of point-of-sale systems for the industry reported restaurant sales overall have still only recovered to about 75% of pre-pandemic levels, making forecasts of pent-up demand welcomed ones, indeed. But with inflationary times continuing to pinch many consumers’ discretionary income, the pressure is on restaurants to conform to trends in order to lure diners away from the competition.

In its 2023 What’s Hot Culinary Forecast, released in November, the National Restaurant Association in partnership with the American Culinary Federation and Technomic unveiled the broad trends to watch, as expressed by industry thought leaders. Leading the list were dining as an experience and continued demand for sustainable, hyper-local fare from garden or farm to fork with minimal processing in between.

Other trends expected to influence menus include growing demand for international fare, especially influences from Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines, part of what the NRA calls “flavor tourism.”

“Consumers want to connect over shared meals more than ever. Offering comfort foods, many with a global or signature twist … continue to be smart business practices,” the report noted. “Shareable charcuterie and elevated bar snacks are satisfying consumers’ munchies while enhancing the communal, on-premises dining experience.”

And, like most other industries, technology will continue to creep into restaurant operations — including the kitchen itself — thus being a major element in fine dining’s ability to woo diners.

As Jennifer Kingson wrote for Axios in December, “Dishes that are an aggressive mash-up of global flavors, like sashimi tostadas and tandoori spaghetti, will hit restaurant menus in 2023, a style that’s been dubbed ‘chaos cooking,’ food prognosticators say. Those concoctions will live or die depending on how well they play on TikTok,

the latest must-use channel for restaurateurs. There’s an arms race to create video-friendly dishes for TikTok, which is rapidly supplanting Instagram and Facebook as the go-to social platform for people deciding where to eat.

“Expect more showy tableside experiences beyond the familiar guacamole-prep ritual. Hot spots such as Miller & Lux in San Francisco turn Caesar salad into an artfully choreographed cheeseand-lettuce-slicing event. ‘Cheese pulls, sauce drips, drink pours, tableside preparations are all key,’ Mike Kostyo of Datassential tells FSR Magazine, a food service periodical.”

While there’s plenty of evidence fine dining is still driven by the reputation and personality of the resident culinarian, there’s also evidence that many of the world’s most decorated chefs are moving toward giving people what they want, some in the most unexpected fashion. According to 7shifts.com, a scheduling software company targeting the restaurant industry, fast casual dining has reached the highest levels of the industry.

“Canlis, a Seattle white-tablecloth institution, and Noma, one of the best restaurants in the world, traded their Michelin-star plates for buns and started flipping burgers,” the company noted on its March 2021 blog. “Canlis created an All-American drive-thru with burgers and fries. Noma became a burger and wine bar, serving takeout for the first time.”

The company also noted food halls as another emerging trend, satisfying diners’ appetite for communal experiences. This trend was echoed by finedininglovers.com, which also noted the number of Michelin-starred and James Beard-nominated chefs who were gravitating to such places.

“Instead of buttoned-up, sit-down meals, food halls offer easily digestible, relatively fast fare,” wrote Flora Tsapovsky last summer. “And yet, they bring a new sensitivity to the scene, be it by sourcing only the best ingredients or utilizing elevated techniques.

“The momentum is stronger than ever both for the curators of food halls and chefs who previously had their hands full operating high-end, acclaimed institutions. As airy, no-reservations-needed food markets have grown in popularity in the pandemic aftermath, and the market grew competitive, the goal has been to attract toptalents with cult followings.”

Arkansas has kept up with the contemporary version of the fine dining establishment but, as with most things in the state, in its own way. Arkansans, as a population, respect quality but tend to reject ceremony, which is why some of the most exciting fine dining experiences in the state can better be described as sophisticated more than formal. Upper-crust spots Red Oak Steakhouse in Pine Bluff,

The Bugler at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, The Hive @ 21C in Bentonville and Little Rock’s Petit & Keet and One Eleven at The Capital today embody a more relaxed atmosphere, without sacrificing elegance.

Arkansas’s fine dining establishments also appear to have a leg up on diner preferences coming into the new year, as comfort foods are among the National Restaurant Association’s recognized hot trends. This is leading many restaurants in the country to fashion upscale replicas of the Southern entrees and sides that are long-held staples here. In other words, things we didn’t just perfect, we likely invented them.

And surrounded as they are by natural and man-made amenities, fine dining restaurants here come paired with the experiences diners today demand, such as a breathtaking vista or companion cultural activities and local entertainment. A Bentonville afternoon at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art capped by dinner at The Preacher’s Son, for example. Riding the Arkansas River Trail followed by Little Rock’s Cache Restaurant, or refueling after a day spent on Pinnacle Mountain with the high-end fare of Arthur’s Steakhouse. Or how about a day on Lake Hamilton, dinner at Vault and a show at Maxwell Blade’s Theater of Magic in Hot Springs? The itinerary list goes on.

All of which are light years away from the era in which Jacques & Suzanne operated, when the formal dinner was the centerpiece of the day, no matter what else had transpired to that point. A time when the world felt much larger, all the better to have a cultural emissary in the form of the international food and service and environment that it embodied.

In its wake, Jacques & Suzanne seeded at least 25 different restaurants that themselves grew into the landscape of Little Rock dining, each of which carried forward a small spark of the original. But as a whole, it is a place never to be seen again, save for the influence it had on a generation of chefs and operators to come, and in “Elevated,” Chris Cranford’s artful gift to the world.

“I just wanted to capture the story before it was lost to time,” he said. “I think it was such a special era. For people my parents’ age, who went there and dined there, I want them to be able to kind of relive that and enjoy that and those memories. Then for people my age and younger, to see this is the ripple in the pond that has led to what we have today. We should enjoy that as well.”

See “Elevated: How Jacques & Suzanne Lifted Little Rock’s Cuisine” at jacquesdoc.com.

In its wake, Jacques & Suzanne seeded at least 25 different restaurants that themselves grew into the landscape of Little Rock dining.

If These Walls Could Talk: Coy’s Steak House in Hot Springs

By Katie Zakrzewski

Every now and then in our short lives, we encounter an establishment that impacts us so dearly, we remember it for decades to come, even long after that establishment is gone. Coy’s Steak House, formerly of Hot Springs, is a prime example of how much a business can touch the lives of the community around it. From all four corners of the state to the plates of blue-collar workers and diplomats, Coy’s Steak House has cooked up a legacy that will last forever — and a legacy that may soon be due for an update.

Coy’s Steak House opened in Hot Springs in 1945. Known among locals in the Spa City for aged steaks, seafood and the best house salad dressing south of the Mason-Dixon line, visitors to Hot Springs made it an annual tradition to stop by the steakhouse during the racing season at Oaklawn Park.

Coy Theobalt Sr. served during World War II and, upon returning, went to work for Myers Bakery in Hot Springs. It was during this time that he started experimenting with season ing salts and discovered that he had an affinity for cooking. He finally came up with a flavor that would become the signature of the restaurant, Coy’s iconic steak seasoning. During this time of experimenting with different spices and seasonings, he also created the famous Coy’s creamy garlic dressing.

Coy Theobalt Jr., son of original owners Coy and Mildred “Mickey” Theobalt, recalled the hard work his parents put into the restaurant. He explains that he ran errands and helped wherever he was needed in the family’s steak house. When he was a toddler, Theobalt would put matchbooks on

customer tables and thank them for eating at Coy’s.

“Growing up there, I really did a lot of different jobs,” Theobalt said. “In the summer as a kid, I’d go in and prep for onion rings and baked potatoes and french fries.”

As the child of restaurant owners, the family’s lives were completely wrapped around the restaurant, and hard work was expected.

“My parents wanted to create the best restaurant in the world,” Theobalt said. “My dad was a master with food, and my mom was a master with people. No one on the staff ever left when they got there. People worked there for over 30 years, and people were in line waiting to get a job there. Usually, their children would step in and take over when they were ready to retire. Everyone knew everyone by name, and customers would request staff by name.”

Coy’s Steak House developed a highly regarded reputation due to how seriously the Theobalts’ took their food. Nothing less than the best would do.

“My dad was such a particular person when it came to food, and

he only bought the best of the best,” Theobalt said. “I would watch him open meat in 55-gallon wooden barrels that had just been unloaded from a truck. Inside, there would be meat in big vacuum-packed bags from Chicago or Iowa. My dad would open up the meat, and if it wasn’t to his standards, he’d close it back up and send it back.

“It didn’t take vendors long to realize that they couldn’t fool Dad. He was so vigilant about it. He was one of the few restaurants in Hot Springs that served prime meat and not choice at that time.”

The elder Theobalt wasn’t just dedicated to the best “turf,” but also the best “surf.”

“My parents gave all of my relatives and anyone who wanted a job the opportunity to work at Coy’s,” Theobalt said. “My dad bought two large trucks and hired two of my uncles to drive to New Orleans every other day to bring seafood back. Nobody else did anything like that. Nobody in the country was doing anything like that. My dad did whatever he had to do to make it its best.”

Theobalt shared that the kitchen was a tight ship in order to meet the demands of the Oaklawn racing season.

“During the horse racing season on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, we could feed close to 1,300 people in five and half hours,” Theobalt said. “The kitchen layout Dad created was perfect for that kind of restaurant — everything was orderly and efficient. My dad worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He would catch a cat nap in his office for half an hour in the afternoon, staff dinner would be around 4, and then we opened the doors at 5.”

Theobalt said that, understandably, being called in to help the restaurant whenever help was needed led to a mild disdain.

“Consequently, I did not have a fondness for the restaurant that my parents did,” Theobalt said. “We often had to fill in for the employees who weren’t there, and we didn’t have a say in it. As I got older, I spent more time as the host during my junior and senior years in the horse racing season.”

Theobalt explained his dad was an entrepreneur who was always thinking outside the box. Theobalt Sr. worked with a friend, an HVAC repair man, to build tin boxes with stainless steel sleeves. These sleeves would hold and warm crackers, which diners would eat covered in Coy’s dressing. Theobalt Jr. also shares that his father is the founder of “surf and turf.” Theobalt also recalled how demand was always incredibly high to get one of the famed steaks.

“Because Coy’s was the best, people expected the best, and my parents were always pushing themselves to be better. Excellence was always expected,” he said. “It was not unusual to have to wait two hours for a table. There was often the task of making sure that the people who were waiting for a table were entertained while waiting.

“My mother bought a piano and organ so people could play in the lobby. There was also a ‘monkey machine.’ Customers could put in a coin, and a row of monkeys would play instruments. There were only nine made in the world, and my dad bought it in Germa-

ny. We’d empty it in the mornings, and there would be 10 pounds of dimes in there. My parents would call it vacation money, not that they ever really took a vacation.”

Theobalt, understandably, hopes he never hears the monkey machine’s song ever again. One thing Theobalt does love hearing, though, are the fond memories people have of Coy’s.

Bruce Tippit, Theobalt’s close childhood friend, grew up working alongside him on the family farm and in the Coy’s Steak House kitchen. Tippit worked at Coy’s primarily during the horse racing season. His mother worked there during the races as well.

Tippit has known Theobalt since fourth grade, and the two became close friends from those years through college. Tippit’s mother had also been the Theobalt family babysitter during the busy racing season’s long working hours. The two lived a short distance away from one another, and Tippit found himself helping the Theobalt family bale hay. Soon, the two worked in the steakhouse kitchen, with Theobalt bussing tables and Tippit racking dishes.

“The language of chefs and cooks were all in code. Someone would call out for a ‘T&T’ which was a tender and tail, and they’d give these codes back and forth,” Tippit recalled. “You would walk in and see the beef hanging and being aged. Those steaks were literally fresh cut, cut to order, and those kinds of special things made it fun.”

Tippit said there was magic within the walls of Coy’s Steak House.

“For a young kid, Coy’s was a magical place. “Coy used to have his birthday parties there. It didn’t matter who you were — you were Coy’s friend. I remember going there, and it was the first time I’d ever really seen a steak or eaten a shrimp cocktail. It was a treat getting to work there. It was hard work but rewarding.”

That hard work didn’t stop on the weekends, either.

“Coy Sr. and Mrs. Theobalt — if they were working, you were working,” Tippit said. It is a long-running joke with Coy or I that if I were staying the night, Mrs. Theobalt would come in at 7 in the morning and say, ‘Alright boys, it’s time to get up, there’s work to do.’”

Rosemary Wooten and Coy Theobalt Jr. with their dad, Coy Theobalt Sr. outside Coy’s Steak House in Hot Springs.

Tippit shared that if you were treating someone special to dinner — a politician, a boss, or a romantic interest — and you wanted to make a good impression, you took them to Coy’s. Theobalt reaffirmed this.

“We served all kinds of important people, from dignitaries to vice presidents, and every act that came to the Vapors came to Coy’s to eat — Bat Masterson, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Phyllis Diller, just to name a few,” Theobalt says. “Coy’s had thousands of signed photographs. All the walls were covered with memorabilia and awards that we’d won.”

Rosemary Wooten, Coy Jr.’s sister, recalls the high esteem in which Coy’s was held.

“My prom date took me to Coy’s,” she said. “I wasn’t a big dater, and I didn’t tell my friends that I was going to bring someone that played for Ouachita’s football team. The girls’ jaws dropped when we came in. Even several years later, on the day that I got married, my husband and I stopped at Coy’s and ate.”

Political events and conferences often stopped at the iconic Coy’s for a memorable meal.

“At one point, we had General William Westmoreland eating there. I was working at the time, and picked up the phone. It was the Pentagon requesting to speak to General Westmoreland,” Wooten says.

Tippit recalled another important political event held at Coy’s.

“I remember the Republican Governors’ Conference being held there,” he said. “Ronald Reagan and Spiro Agnew were there. I got Agnew’s autograph on one of his vice presidential business cards, and everyone stood up to acknowledge Reagan, who was governor of California at the time. A level of excellence was expected. If you were going to go out, you went to Coy’s.”

Tippit’s respect for the Theobalt family exceeds the boundaries of the workplace, as he credited the family with turning his life around.

“I was going down a really dark path in college. Coy took me aside and supported me and talked to me about what I’d been doing,” Tippit recalled. “Coy Sr. treated me honorably and kindly and involved me in many areas of responsibility. They helped me, and it changed me for the better.”

Not long after, Tippit began a career in Christian ministry. Tippit shared that even though the Theobalts were immensely successful in their restaurant endeavors, they always acted with a spirit of humility and equality.

“Everyone was treated equally; there was never a subservient attitude,” he said. “One of the men that worked with me in the kitchen was an African American man named Andrew, and Coy entrusted him with great responsibility. That was very rare during the ’60s. But at Coy’s, there was never a sense that he was different. He was Andrew. He worked alongside us in the kitchen and on the Theobalt farm.”

Most of all, Tippit said he was thankful the humility of the Theobalt family created a tighter community in Hot Springs.

“Mrs. Theobalt was out front doing a lot of welcoming. It was the ethic of the home,” he said. “They didn’t act like they were above anyone. It was a blessing to have that in my life and to know that it was authentic and real. I have great love and affinity for that family, and they were such a vital part of my life.”

Wooten also emphasized that everyone at Coy’s wasn’t just a member of the staff, they were family.

“We had more aunts than anyone is allowed in a lifetime,” she said. “When a waiter came to Coy’s, she was here to stay, so they all became aunts to me. And they loved us, just like we were their kids.

“I would hang out in the bar with my godmother, Mary, who was like the right-hand woman. She was there for many, many a dark times. We had our bright times and our dark times, and Aunt Mary was always there.”

In 1972, the elder Theobalts grew older, and as Theobalt Jr. and Wooten pursued career paths outside of the food industry, the owners sold the restaurant to a group of investors. One investor was Jim Manning.

While there had been discussions about opening up a Coy’s location in Little Rock and North Little Rock, those discussions would ultimately not come to fruition. The allure of Coy’s in Hot Springs was not just the food but also the family atmosphere and connection to the community that had been prevalent for decades.

“When they tore down the National Bank in Hot Springs, Dad bought all the bricks in order to build a new building,” Theobalt said. “He’d hire people during the day to work cleaning bricks to keep them employed during the transition from one restaurant to another. Back then, any job was a job, and dad took care of his employees. The building that was built with those bricks was just beautiful.”

Manning and investors decided to nurture that Hot Springs community. Tracy Brown, Manning’s daughter, explained that even after her father acquired the restaurant, the legacy and importance of Coy’s remained.

“Many employees crossed over at that time and stayed on with us,” Brown said. “We built on a bigger dining room and added onto

“My parents gave all of my relatives and anyone who wanted a job the opportunity to work at Coy’s.”

THE DEAL

Coy Theobalt Sr. (Photo provided)

the menu a little. Wedding receptions and engagement parties and birthday parties and proms would still dine here, in addition to Miss Arkansas judges and Miss America pageantry.

“We started personalizing booths and tables with faces and personalities who had been there a long time through the ages.”

The Manning family continued to run the restaurant, during which time Brown took it over from her father. Servers continued to bond with long-time customers, who had become more like friends. As individuals retired, their children would take over. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

Coy Theobalt Sr. died in 1997, and Mrs. Theobalt followed in 2006. All was quiet for a while. But three years later, tragedy struck.

* * * * * * * * *

“In 2009, a day before the horse racing season, I got a phone call,” Theobalt recalled. “A fire broke out around 2 in the morning.”

“It was like driving a stake through my heart,” Tippit said, remembering when he had received the news. “Coy’s was iconic in the Hot Springs landscape. … The memories were still there. It was the food, yes, but it was also what it represented. It had been born out of hardscrabble work and had become famous in so many ways. And it all went up in flames.”

Brown still remembers the phone call vividly.

“I got a call from my kitchen manager and a fireman that there was a fire, and that I needed to come quickly,” she said. “My son, Clay, was little, and I put him in the car. The smoke hit us before we even reached the rest stop. The fireman was in tears and told me that the fire was too hot — he had to let it go.”

Brown recalled agencies looked for a cause of the fire, but the investigation yielded no answers. A lot of the equipment, which the family was in the process of replacing, was older; this might have been the cause of the fire.

Following the disaster, Brown attempted to look for locations to house a new Coy’s, eager to reinvent the old. But she realized that it was a challenge that would require more time.

Theobalt recalled returning with his sister to the site where Coy’s had once stood.

“We went and stood up there on the rest of the concrete pad after the fire, and there was still some linoleum left that I recognized on the ground from where the floor once was,” he said. “It was devastating. It makes you sick.”

Wooten recalls that tragic day as well.

“It was sad, it even makes me tear up now,” she said. “It was just such a shock; this was just not supposed to happen. That legend was not supposed to end, not like this. I still go sit up on the lot where the restaurant used to be on important days, like Dad’s birthday. It was like our home. We spent more time there than we did at

home. That was home.”

Wooten hopes that when people think of Coy’s, they don’t remember the tragic fire. Instead, she hopes they remember the impact that Coy’s had on the lives of so many.

“You take things for granted when they’re there,” Wooten said. “And when it’s gone, you regret not cherishing it. It was a wonderful place and one of the most wonderful places anywhere. I don’t want people to remember the fire. I want people to remember my family’s hard work and the treasure that it was.”

Much like Theobalt and Wooten, the Hot Springs community was heartbroken in the wake of the fire. Even today, one does not need to look far on the internet to find recent forums and threads of people continuing to share memories about Coy’s.

Several years later, in 2017, Brown’s son Clay grew interested in cooking, particularly grilling. Brown found a box of charred recipes and showed them to her son, who took an interest in the Coy’s Steakhouse recipes.

Brown says that the Coy’s Southern Eats recipe is the seasoning that Coy Theobalt Sr. used, but that the type of salt used has been changed due to MSG allergies in the family. Clay came up with the idea to market this seasoning and Coy’s house dressing to the public in a more modern way.

“We took Clay’s idea to Clint Albright, who had been responsible for Coy’s Steakhouse’s marketing,” Brown said. He told us that we don’t have to abandon the old Coy’s, but that we can reintroduce it and bring it to a new audience that might not have known about

Coy’s before. We rebranded as Coy’s Southern Eats, and we’ve shipped all the way to Alaska. I’m shipping seasoning anywhere that there’s a horse track, for sure.”

While the unwavering loyalty that people have to Coy’s Steakhouse and Coy’s Southern Eats remains, Brown points out one thing that everyone can agree on.

“The restaurant has almost been like a family member to two different families — it meant so much to so many people,” she said. “No matter who owns it, that is what makes it unique. The legacy, without question, began with Coy Theobalt, Sr. Nobody will be able to wear the shoes of the folks who paved the way; we can just hope we learned enough from them to carry on.”

And not all is lost.

The legacy of the iconic Hot Springs steakhouse and its beloved seasonings will live on. In fact, rumor has it that something lies just around the bend …

“Coy’s was iconic in the Hot Springs landscape… The memories were still there. It was the food, yes, but it was also what it represented. It had been born out of hardscrabble work and had become famous in so many ways. And it all went up in flames.”

Arkansas Korea to

GROWING ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS AT HOME & ABROAD

By Caleb Talley, Executive Director, Startup Junkie

The Silk Road was formally established around 130 B.C., connecting Asia and the Far East to the Middle East and Europe. This historic network of routes would serve as a critical driver of commerce and a pipeline for trade between the East and the West for centuries. But in addition to the goods that made their way back and forth along the route, the Silk Road became an artery for the exchange of cultures, ideas and created a shared history for communities of people on opposite ends of the world.

It’s 2023, and thanks to the access afforded us by the internet and modern technology, we no longer need to trek thousands of miles to reach a global marketplace. And opportunities on the other side of the globe abound, but perhaps none more so than in South Korea.

Nearly 60 years have passed since the Beatles led the British Invasion into the American zeitgeist and shaped the landscape of culture and entertainment for a generation. Today, we are witnessing a new cultural phenomenon, and it’s taking hold of a generation of American consumers and opening the door to even more opportunities abroad for startups and enterprises, alike – the Korean Wave.

The Korean Wave became a global phenomenon, thanks to the prevalence of digital platforms, and social media has spread South Korean cultural content more widely in global markets since the 2010s, and it’s led to an influx of capital and opportunity. According to Korean Development Institute, the export of every $100 worth of cultural content led to the export of $248 worth of consumer goods between 2011 and 2016. And while teenagers swoon over KPop sensations and K-Dramas rack up award nominations, the cultural bridge being built between South Korea and the West also creates space to expand on the bridge building between entrepreneurial ecosystems.

For the last couple of years, Startup Junkie has worked to be a part of that bridge building effort, serving as a conduit for commerce between startups and enterprises in both Arkansas and South Korea. In 2020, the Fayette-

ville-based entrepreneurial support organization partnered with the Korean International Trade Association (KITA) to conduct startup testbed initiatives with Korean tech companies in Northwest Arkansas. Dubbed the Arkansas Korea Alliance (AKA), the partnership was the first joint startup program between Korea and Northwest Arkansas.

By leveraging our unique geographic positioning with South Korea, Startup Junkie provides a gateway of opportunities for proof-of-concept product trials and other business-to-business collaboration opportunities for world-class Korean startups ready to enter the United States market. In addition, the organization has and will continue to facilitate the product offerings of Korean startups to retailers and partner enterprises in the U.S., and the partnership provides information sharing on the venture environment of both countries as well as an exchange of startup support, funding, and deal sourcing in the United States, South Korea and Asia-Pacific regions.

“For large enterprises, competitive advantage can come from partnering with the best new ventures from around the world,” says Startup Junkie founder Jeff Amerine, who spearheaded the organization’s work abroad, which now also includes Singapore. “The Startup Junkie team has developed strategic relationships with key players in the venture scene in South Korea and Singapore to help them prepare and engage in North America.”

And by establishing and strengthening this bond between Northwest Arkansas and Seoul, Startup Junkie is also creating opportunities for domestic ventures looking to enter the Korean market.

“Initially, these testbed program bridges have been in one direction – Asia-to-US,” Amerine adds. “Eventually, these relationships will be used to help engage Arkansas early-stage ventures with large enterprises in South Korea and Singapore. Our objective is to build strong reciprocal relationships with democracies that have aligned values and a strong rule of law. We believe programs like this will strengthen the regional economies of all concerned.”

South Korea is at the forefront of Asia in terms of entrepreneurship, having grown its ecosystem by leaps and bounds since the turn of the century thanks in large part to great governmental and cultural support. Over the last few years, the Korean government has built on that effort, including support for foreign entrepreneurs, with well-funded programs and accelerators like the K-Start Grand Challenge. In fact, the South Korean government is a world leader in per capita support of entrepreneurs.

“There is a surplus of world class startups thriving domestically in Korea, and many of them have matured to become true global competitors with solutions that any international enterprise would want to get their hands on,” said Louis Diesel, Startup Junkie Consulting’s Head of Asia. “Combining that with Startup Junkie’s HQ being in Northwest Arkansas, and all the great enterprise relationships on our side, this partnership brings a geographic arbitrage situation with in-house teams on the ground both in the U.S. and in Korea.”

And in doing so, companies in both Seoul and Northwest Arkansas can leverage expanded global networks without having to

STARTUPS

penetrate the bloated, overcrowded, and expensive ecosystems of the U.S. coasts.

“Korea ranks annually in top five in tech and innovation,” Diesel says. “And there’s absolutely no need to go to San Francisco or the East Coast when the world’s largest companies are in in Northwest Arkansas. Startup Junkie leverages both geographies with teams on the ground in both countries. We take growth stage Korean startups and select them based on their existing customer base and provide opportunities to test their technology with the world’s largest companies and help show that there is real market potential to be a global player.”

The work to strengthen the bridge between the two ecosystems continues in 2023, and fellow Startup Junkie and Fuel Accelerator Director Matthew Ward and I recently traveled to Seoul to explore how we might expand on those efforts.

Atop the bustling city on the uppermost floors of the Korean World Trade building, KITA works to expand the country’s economy through global trade and is the largest business organization in Korea with over 70,000 member companies. KITA provides hands-on support to new ventures and established en-

“In light of this trend,” he adds, “it is important for local startups to collaborate with international SMEs and startups and organizations like Startup Junkie, to come up with more comprehensive solutions to corporate.”

In June, KITA will host NextRise, one of the largest startup conferences in the world, designed to connect global founders, investors and others in the entrepreneurial space. The event presents another opportunity for Startup Junkie and Northwest Arkansas ventures to expand those networks within the Korean marketplace.

Seoul is home to a number of organizations that also work to grow the regional economy through support of local startups and investment in foreign ventures. Such organizations like KOTRA – the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency – also works to help SMEs expand into international markets and invests in domestic and foreign companies. With satellite offices across the U.S. and a shared mission, the potential for collaborating to better serve Arkansas and Korean startups is exciting.

Like KOTRA, the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) is a product of governmental support for entrepreneurship and international trade and are uniquely tasked with also cultivating the entrepreneurial spirit within the country. KISED works from the ground up, providing entrepreneurial education to students and helping to discover, train and provide resources to would-be entrepreneurs. For established startups, KISED assists with funding, human resources and mar-

terprises, drawing trade cooperation from the private sector, formulating new trade strategies, nurturing trade professionals and building trade infrastructure. With a network of 13 domestic and 11 global offices, KITA has consolidated its position as a leading business organization dedicated to assisting small- and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) gain foreign market entry.

Startup Junkie has locked arms with the organization in that effort and facilitated test bed programs for multiple cohorts of Korean startups, with plans to expand the work and strengthen the relationship in 2023.

“One of the trends in open innovation is the increase of joint proof-of-concept programs,” says Phil Jae Park, director of KITA’s Startup Global Scale Up team. “There is an increasing trend of startups with element technology collaborating with startups in different industries and small and medium-sized enterprises in other industries to participate in open innovation with large corporations in order to complement their own technology.

keting opportunities until a company is ready for global expansion programs.

The Korean government expanded on the support provided to entrepernuers through KISED with the creation of a network of Centers for Creative Economy & Innovation (CCEI). With 19 centers located across Korea,

CCEI works

operated by KISED,

The Startup Junkie team – from right, Matthew Ward, Louis Diesel and Caleb Talley – meeting with the Korean International Trade Association’s Director of Startup Global Scale Up Teams Phil Jae Park and Junsang Yum at KITA’s offices in the World Trade Tower in Seoul.

KOTRA is a state-funded trade and investment promotion organization operated by the government of South Korea. KOTRA operates offices throughout the world, with the nearest U.S. location in Dallas.

to help Korean startups enter global markets through consulting, counseling, resources and much more.

CCEI also provides support to startups looking to ex pand into the Korean market, making them an ideal partner for bridge-building opportunities between our two ecosystems. And in an effort to do just that,

the Startup Junkie team has engaged with the CCEI in Gyeonggi Province, a sleek and modern commercial region just outside of Seoul that could be considered Korea’s own Silicon Valley.

Startup Junkie is certainly not the only organization working to reinforce the ties between Arkansas and South Korea. Thanks to the hard work of state economic developers at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the dedication of like-minded organizations such as the Arkansas Association of Asian Businesses, the prospect of tapping into one of the world’s most vibrant marketplaces has quickly gone from dream to reality. And it couldn’t come at a better time, as the Korean Wave continues to wash over the West and spark new interest in the region’s culture, content and commerce.

With an opportunity so great and potentially impactful for startups and enterprises, alike, the concerted efforts by public and private organizations to strengthen the bridge connecting Arkansas and Korean business ecosystems could pay dividends for generations to come.

BUILDING BRIDGES TO THE WORLD

As the world continues to reemerge from a pandemic in 2023, more opportunities to build bridges to global ecosystems are coming online. And tapping into those new markets could have a multiplying effect on the commercial success of scaling Arkansas ventures.

In addition to Korea and Singapore, the Startup Junkie team has worked to develop stronger trade relationships in other Asian countries, as well as across Europe and the Middle East, with formal partnerships coming within the European Union, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“After the pandemic, there were new opportunities for startups to focus on growth, enter new markets and generate revenue and access new capital,” says Jernej Adamic, Startup Junkie Consulting’s director of global business development. “Startup Junkie is supporting startups at home and abroad by helping them identify new market opportunities, facilitating relationships with relevant enterprise clients and providing access to the capital needed for growth.”

Growth is a major focus for leading startups, but it can also help strong teams from smaller markets or those that have reached a demand limit in their domestic market to become niche leaders.

“On the other hand,” Adamic adds, “tech innovation is not limited to one location. New solutions are emerging all around the world at an unprecedented pace. Startup Junkie’s programs provide leading enterprises with the opportunity to try out new innovative tools and implement them into their processes before their competitors.”

In short: Developing global relationships paves the way for world domination for Arkansas entrepreneurs.

The Seoul, South Korea skyline from atop the World Trade Tower.

The Startup Junkie team, right, dining in a traditional Korean barbeque restaurant with local business leader and Fuel Accelerator alum Hyun-Kyu “Logan” Lee, of Deeping Source, and his wife Sunju.

WALTON’S GREATEST HITS

By Ken Heard

Ibought my first vinyl album from the Walmart in Ash Flat in 1976.

It was the “Eagles Greatest Hits (1971-1975),” the one with the painted eagle skull on the cover with the blue Mylar background. I played “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Take it Easy” and “Take it to the Limit” on a stereo my parents bought for me from Walmart.

Thirty-nine years after buying the Eagles’ album, while visiting Ash Flat, I bought my first flat-screen television set from the same Walmart. The store had moved about a mile down U.S. 412 toward Highland and became a Supercenter, but it was still in the tiny Sharp County town.

Walmart is part of my near-daily routine. When I met my wifeto-be in a northern suburb of Chicago in 2015, I knew she was the one after I experienced the domestic bliss of shopping with her in the store. Our first date was actually a trip to the Gurnee, Ill., Walmart Supercenter to buy toilet seats for the home she was putting up for sale.

Now, back home in Jonesboro, I go to the nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market with The List, the itinerary of things we need that my wife scrawls on the back of an envelope or notebook paper.

Walmart is a vital part of our culture whether we realize it or not.

The proliferation of Walmart has become so great that a study recently showed that 90 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Supercenter or Neighborhood Market.

The first store opened in 1962 in Bentonville by a humble Sam Walton, who drove his old pickup truck around town and later, despite being a billionaire, stayed at budget motels or store managers’ homes when traveling.

Although he espoused that good ol’ boy charm and downhome goodness, Walton was a shrewd genius when it came to business. With his slogan, “Always the low price. Always,” Walton created the concept of one-stop shopping. Need groceries? Go to Walmart. Need toilet seats? Go to Walmart. Need vinyl Eagles albums or flat-screen televisions? Well, you know where to go.

Walton’s empire could have begun in Missouri rather than Northwest Arkansas. He had a chance to buy a Federated department store in St. Louis for $10,000. His wife, Helen, whom Sam married on Valentine’s Day in 1943, nixed that idea, saying a town of 10,000 was large enough for them. He bought a Ben Franklin store in Newport for $25,000 and took a two-week business course in Arkadelphia to learn the trade.

He decided to buy products directly from manufactures rather than through a company that increased his costs by 25 percent, Walton wrote in his 1992 book “Sam Walton: Made in America.”

He hitched a trailer to the back of his car, and after work he’d drive to Missouri and Tennessee to buy things.

“I’d bring them back, price them low and blow that stuff out of the store,” he wrote.

“Here’s the simple lesson we learned … which eventually changed the way the retailers sell and customers buy all across America,” Walton wrote of his early years in business. “I might

only make half the profit per item, but because I was selling three times as many, the overall profit was much greater. In retailer language, you can lower your markup but earn more because of the increased volume.”

The idea worked. In his first year in Newport, his Ben Franklin store made $105,000, compared to $72,000 the year before. The next year, he earned $140,000 and then $175,000.

Walton’s landlord, who owned the Ben Franklin store building, didn’t renew Walton’s lease after five years, seeing the potential for profit for himself.

Walton considered opening a store in Siloam Springs, but opted instead for Bentonville where he bought the 4,000-squarefoot Harrison’s Variety Store. He hauled lighting fixtures from the Newport store in his truck, taking a dirt road around a weigh station in Rogers because he knew he was overloaded and didn’t want to pay extra fees.

He opened his first Walmart in Bentonville on July 2, 1962. Within five years, he owned 24 stores and earned $12.7 million. In 1972, he made $78 million, and in 1980 saw sales top $1 billion in his 276 stores.

Walton’s empire was criticized by people who thought his stores were putting the mom-and-pop stores out of business.

“Of all the notions I’ve heard about Walmart, none has ever baffled me more than this idea that we are somehow the enemy of small town America,” he wrote in his biography. “Nothing could be further from the truth: Walmart has actually kept quite a number of small towns from becoming practically extinct by offering low prices and saving literally billions of dollars for the people who live there as well as creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in our stores.”

Walton died on April 5, 1992, but his business legacy lives on. Walmart now has over 11,000 stores worldwide with 2.2 million employees and $572.75 billion in sales last year. It far surpassed Exxon Mobil as the largest company by revenue.

When looking back on some of the more cultural and lifestyle changing events of the past century, Sam Walton’s business idea for one-stop shopping has to be considered one of the most impactful. Whether you want food, clothing, household appliances, hardware, sporting goods or even Eagles albums, it’s all there under one roof.

Executive Walton MBA

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Designed for working professionals, the Walton Executive MBA o ers a cutting-edge curriculum taught by world-renowned faculty, unparalleled networking opportunities and extensive corporate connections. Our blended delivery o ers the convenience of online learning combined with the networking bene ts of one in-person Saturday a month.

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Admissions decisions are based on a faculty committee review of your entire application packet. Applications may be reviewed after the published deadline on a seat-available basis.

*A waiver of the GMAT or GRE may be available for quali ed students. Visit emba.uark.edu for more information.

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The new Conway Regional Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center of Arkansas, led by Dawn Hughes, MD, and Stacey Johnson, APRN, offers care for women with complications found prior to or during pregnancy and for their unborn baby. Each woman's journey to having a baby is unique, which is why our highly-skilled specialists collaborate with ob-gyns, neonatologists, and pediatricians to provide each patient with a special, individualized care plan. Visit ConwayRegional.org to learn more.

We’re not just growing—we’re growing together.

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Right: Dawn Hughes, MD, and Stacey Johnson, APRN

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