ARKANSAS VISIONARY ROSS WHIPPLE

By Dwain Hebda

Arkansas Business Hall of Fame Class of 2023

By Dwain Hebda

Ross Whipple’s business career can be aptly described as playing the long game. Not only can every enterprise in his remarkable career trace its origins back generations, but the positive impact of those ventures under his leadership have spread out like a woody vine, setting roots and sprouting shoots of their own.

From preserved and maintained forestland to main street banking interests to untold charitable contributions to causes large and small, Whipple’s imprint can be detected directly and indirectly in his hometown of Arkadelphia, in southwest Arkansas, throughout the state and beyond.

“This is just really simple,” he said in describing his business philosophy. “We learned this in kindergarten. Just treat people like you want to be treated. Treat your customers like they want to be treated, and treat every customer the same.

“It doesn’t matter if they’ve got $10 million or $1, because to them, it’s the same, it’s all they have. Not only that, but we don’t know what they may turn into tomorrow. So, you treat everybody the same, and treat them like you want to be treated. And it generally works.”

When you make even a part of your living in the timber business – where a tree planted today isn’t ready for harvest for three decades or so – you quickly learn how to lengthen your field of vision. Whipple exercised this leadership quality to great success both in the forest, where he began his career at age 18 learning from the cutters and sawmill employees who formed the foundation of the business, and also in banking. In that field, he grew multiple local institutions from what they were into what he knew they could be.

In 1979, his mentor and cousin, Jane Ross, bought controlling interest in Merchants and Planters Bank of Arkadelphia, a modest operation with unrealized potential. Whipple led a merger with the Bank of Malvern to form Central Arkansas Bancshares, and in 1989, he became president of Merchants and Planters Bank. He and Ross would gain controlling interest in the bank holding company, which gave Whipple more freedom to execute a strategy that included enhanced customer service and offering employees the chance to hold equity.

Though completely new to the banking world, Whipple showed a natural aptitude for the work, exercising basic, common-sense principles and showing a nose for opportunity that resonated with customer, shareholder and employee alike.

“I’ve always said I never was a banker. I was a risk manager,” he said. “That’s one of the things that you do in any business, but especially the banking business. There’s all kinds of risk. There’s interest rate risk, there’s financial risk, there’s regulatory risk, and you have to manage the whole thing as a unit.”

In less than a decade, the company completed additional acquisitions and consolidated four bank charters into Horizon Bancorp, Inc., which Whipple then sold to Mercantile Bank of St. Louis, now U.S. Bank, in early 1998. The price represented a robust 3.25 times book value and 24 times earnings.

As a follow-up, Whipple launched Summit Bank in Arkadelphia in February 2000, and grew it to $1.2 billion dollars in assets using the same successful formula, selling out in 2014 to Bank of the Ozarks, now Bank OZK. In both instances, the success of the company radiated out well beyond top floor executives.

“I had a very good return for all the shareholders, which I’m very proud of,” he said. “What really pleases me about this is that a lot of our employees were invested in the company. Now, you have to understand how I’m putting this: There were some people who worked for the bank that had more of their net worth in it than I did. I had other assets, but I had some employees that put everything they could into a 401K or bank stock.

“I was really pleased with what happened to them; as we went forth, they reaped enough of return to take care of their families and live a good life once they retired.”

Whipple was born in Arkadelphia in June 1951, the only child of Catherine and Max Whipple, an accountant with Reynolds Metals Company. He grew up in modest circumstances in Malvern; his family had enough, but he didn’t have to look far to see others where, in his words, “There was too much month at the end of the money.”

Perhaps because of this awareness, Whipple demonstrated an early gift for entrepreneurship. He launched a lawn mowing business at age 11, within two years had expanded to two employees, and two years after that, bought his first car with the proceeds.

He continued that enterprise through high school until the summer before his senior year when his cousin Jane, approached him about attending college at Henderson State University and working for her. Ross ran the family timber business and also the relatively new Ross Foundation, a private foundation established with timberland when Jane’s mother, Esther Clark Ross, died in 1966.

“I had known Jane all my life although we were not really that close,” Whipple said. “I thought I’d give it a try, and it turned out well for both of us. She was very, very good to me in mentoring me, and financially she was very good to me. But it wasn’t easy; I will tell you Jane had a pretty tough reputation, and being a woman in the business world in the ῾50s, ῾60s and ῾70s she had to be.

“She wanted to make sure that I learned everything about the forest industry from cutting logs to driving skidders to working in the woods. She wanted to make sure that I got the full flavor of the industry, and it was good for me. I came to understand quite a bit about what it takes to run a sawmill and what it takes to run all the equipment that brings the wood to the mill.”

Per the agreement, Whipple entered Henderson in the fall of 1969, graduating with Distinguished Military Graduate honors and a second lieutenant’s commission in the U.S. Army, where he served in the 1st Cavalry Division. He began in the MBA program at the University of Arkansas in the fall of 1974, during which time he’d meet and wed Mary McCombs, another long-term investment of time and affection that yielded three daughters and seven grandchildren, soon to be nine, in the nearly 50 years since.

There are many aspects today that underscore Whipple’s business achievements, from the aforementioned successes in banking, to expanding the timber company’s holdings from 500 acres to 70,000 acres, to growing the Ross Foundation’s land base from 16,000 acres to 64,000 acres. This latter accomplishment is arguably the most personally meaningful to Whipple, as managing the Ross Foundation forestland as a charitable asset by expanding public use and natural resource benefits has enabled the foundation to make millions in charitable grants.

One standout contribution, awarded in 2010, helped make possible the Arkadelphia Promise, assisting each qualifying senior of Arkadelphia High School in covering college tuition.

“[Arkadelphia Promise] gives so many more people the opportunity to receive an education, which I think is great for our community, the state and the nation as a whole,” he said. “If a kid lives in Arkadelphia and they want to go to Henderson, for example, they can go for nothing, basically.

“I think we need to give back some of the bounty that we’ve been fortunate enough to have acquired. We should all do that.”

Now entering the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, Whipple is still planning – and executing – what comes next.

“I had to learn how to work at an early age; I’m 71 years old, and I’m still doing it. I have no intentions of leaving,” he said. “You really need to plan for things in life, but you don’t need to spend 95% of your time planning and 5% executing. I think you need to spend 5% of your time planning and 95% of your time executing.”

When it comes to economic development in the technology sector, Arkansas is setting itself apart as the place to be. With one of the lowest costs of living in the country and a variety of business incentives for organizations in emerging tech, the state is catching the attention of startups and Fortune 500s alike, as well as attracting skilled workers to fill high-tech jobs in cybersecurity, fintech, retail, supply chain and more. In the following section, Arkansas Money & Politics will assess recent developments on this front and highlight some of the people, companies and programs making Arkansas’ technological footprint known.

Over the past several decades, Arkansas has become a hub for financial technology (FinTech) disruptors. Now home to some of the biggest players in the FinTech sector, including companies like Acxiom, ABC Financial and FIS, the state has focused on bringing in tech startups and enriching existing businesses with several incubators and accelerator programs. These programs are designed to foster growth through education, mentorship and resources, and they serve as the perfect jumping-off point for entrepreneurs working on “the next big thing.”

The state is also proactively fostering a homegrown, highly-skilled workforce that meets the needs of the tech companies that call Arkansas home. Arkansas was the first state to mandate coding education in schools, and the state’s “Learning to Code” initiative is putting more high school students on track for successful careers in tech.

Artificial intelligence is making headlines for its written and artistic capabilities, but the technology is also breaking ground through innovative new uses in health care. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Institute for Digital Health and Innovation touches on the recent growth in health technology and how needs are being met for both clinicians and patients in new ways.

Technology is also making a new kind of “farm to table” possible – that is, giving more people the ability to invest in farmland from the comfort of their kitchen tables. Fayetteville-based AcreTrader connects users to lucrative but previously unfeasible investment opportunities, and CEO Carter Malloy touches on the vital role technology plays in bringing benefits to the platform’s investors and farmers. Meanwhile, Edafio Technology Partners Chief Growth Officer Mark Hodges highlights the importance of strong personal cybersecurity practices for individuals and how they can have a knock-on effect on businesses.

From long-standing giants to exciting up-and-comers, from FinTech to eCommerce and every line of code in between, one thing is clear: the future of tech is in the Natural State.