Crafton Tull CEO Matt Crafton elected chairman of board of directors

by Paul Gatling ([email protected]) 609 views 

Rogers engineering and design firm Crafton Tull has elected Matt Crafton, the company’s president and CEO, to the additional role of chairman of the firm’s nine-member board of directors.

His election took place Saturday (Feb. 18) in Rogers at an annual meeting of the company’s 32 stockholders. Crafton succeeds Tom Hopper, who retired late last year after nearly 47 years with the company.

“I’m honored by our board’s confidence, but it’s really about our team at Crafton Tull,” Crafton said in a statement to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “We’re proud of our company’s legacy and will do everything we can to continue to live up to that.”

Crafton Tull was founded in 1963 by Lemuel “Lem” Tull and Bob Crafton, Matt Crafton’s father. He is the fourth chairman in the company’s history, following Tull (1966-1966), Crafton (1996-2000) and Hopper (2000-2016). The firm recently opened a new office in Fayetteville on Zion Road and now has more than 200 employees spread out across seven offices in Arkansas (5) and Oklahoma (2).

Matt Crafton joined the firm as a project manager in 1998, following eight years of active duty in the United States Air Force. He rose through the company to become president and CEO in 2009.

Crafton, 49, was a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2000 class of Forty Under 40.