Under-40 Honorees Fare Well

(Click here to see this year’s list of 40 Under 40.)

In July of 1997, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal presented its inaugural “40-Under-40” list of up-and-coming local business leaders. That group included already established “names” and those who were getting their first taste of the spotlight.

Five years later, many of the people on that original list are casting bigger shadows in their fields, making headlines and setting industry standards. Here’s a look at what’s happened to some of the first 40-Under-40 class from Benton and Washington counties:

• Arkansas National Bank President Dan Dykema continued to be a high-profile figure after the listing appeared in the Journal.

“Five years ago, we had just started Arkansas National Bank from scratch,” Dykema said. “Now, we’ve grown to about $500 million in assets.”

When ANB opened in 1994, the administrators wanted to become No. 2 in the Northwest Arkansas market share. Dykema’s team planned to achieve the goal within seven years, but the bank reached the target after five. ANB now has about 16 percent of all deposits made in Washington and Benton counties.

Dykema humbly credited his management team for the bank’s success and said his greatest accomplishment has been helping assemble the management staff.

• Bev Lewis still shines as the University of Arkansas’ women’s athletic director. During her tenure, Lewis has added volleyball, golf and softball to the women’s athletic lineup, and a gymnastics program begins this fall.

In 1989, when Lewis took the director’s position, the UA supported eight women’s teams. Including gymnastics, the UA now sports 11.

Since 1997, Lewis also directed the fund raising and opening of the $400,000 Women’s Athletic Museum in Barnhill Arena.

Recently, Lewis took on another challenge. She wants to raise $5 million to build a Center for Women’s Athletics, which will include a fully equipped gymnastics facility and all-sport weight gym.

• The Journal only lists up-and-coming successes once, and folks like Burt Hanna are the reason. Hanna, 39, could have still made the age limit for this year’s group, and his list of accomplishments would certainly qualify him for selection. After his inclusion on the 1997 honor roll, Hanna’s scented candle business, Hanna’s Potpourri Specialties Inc. in Fayetteville (now Hanna’s Candle Co.), persistently flourished.

Huge accounts with Wal-Mart Stores; JC Penney Co.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Kroger Co.; Kmart Corp. and Dayton Hudson Corp. kept Hanna’s busy.

• Still serving as president of Stribling Packaging, Bill Stribling Jr. helped the family business double its growth revenue in the last five years. During that time, Stribling formed a partnership with brothers-in-law Kim Campbell and Patrick Sbarra to create a full-service design and packaging network. Campbell operates Cargo Net, a distribution firm, and Sbarra runs New Creature, a graphic design venture.

In July, crews poured concrete for the 275,000-SF building that will house Stribling Packaging and another family firm, Ro-ark Printing Inc. Together, in association with New Creature and Cargo Net, the companies will form a “graphics packaging campus.”

The Stribling ventures exploded with growth, and managing a stable structure has been a great challenge, Stribling said. Stribling Packaging alone brought in $12 million in annual sales last year. In 2-3 years, Stribling said, the company aims to gross $20 million annually.

• Kirk Elsass was 39 years old when he was included on the 40-Under-40 listing. As senior vice president of Lindsey & Associates Inc., Elsass sold real estate and bought property for his own portfolio. Today, he continues to build houses — he and another 1997 40-Under-40 selection, John David Lindsey, have built 120 single-family houses, and 23 more are under construction.

But Elsass’ priorities changed when he started a family. Marrying his wife and having a son are his greatest accomplishments, Elsass said. With Angela and Andrew on his mind, Elsass began taking weekends off work to spend time at home. Now, he said, he rarely misses dinner with his wife.

“She’s an excellent cook,” he said.

Elsass waited until later in life to start his family, but he said that was the best way for him. Because he established his career during his 30s, he said, he is financially secure and can spend more time with his family.

• Gary Head, an Arvest McIlroy Bank & Trust leader, also made the first 40-Under-40 list. Back then, Head was senior vice president of commercial lending. He was promoted to president and CEO in 1999.

Head said he is most proud that, during 2000, the bank had its greatest earnings in its 130-year history. Recently, Head was certified by Louisiana State University as a professional master of banking.

• At age 32, Clete Brewer made the Business Journal’s first list as president and CEO of StaffMark Inc., which was then a staffing agency based in Fayetteville. He may have endured the toughest last five years of his class.

Staffing companies fell out of favor with Wall Street in early 1999. So, Brewer regrouped and sold the company’s staffing divisions. He retained the software development company in Wakefield, Mass., and renamed the corporation Edgewater Technology Inc.

All this happened just as software companies nosedived on the stock market.

Recently, Brewer named Shirley Singleton as CEO of Edgewater, but he remains chairman of the corporation’s board.

• Owner of Houndstooth Clothing Co. in Fayetteville, 36-year-old Michael Baker said he still enjoys his work.

“I still love coming to work every day,” he said. Houndstooth has seven retail locations that sell T-shirts featuring Baker’s retro and athletic designs. The Fayetteville-based company, which grossed about $2 million last year, employs about 45 people.

• When Blake Woolsey appeared on the first 40-Under-40 list, she worked as a senior development officer for the UA College of Business Administration. In April of last year, Woolsey became pregnant with her son Page and decided to step down from her position.

The UA didn’t let her go so easily, though, and administrators offered Woolsey a part-time position in university development. Having accepted the offer, Woolsey works half days from home.

“They were so willing to work with me,” Woolsey said. “I was flattered.”

As a fund-raiser, Woolsey said her inclusion on the 40-Under-40 list increased her visibility.

“I didn’t even recognize that that’s what I wanted, until it happened. Then I said, ‘Oh. That was a really good thing,'” Woolsey said. “It was such a positive effect.”