Arkansas Targets Global Economy

Northwest Arkansas is now a gateway to the world.
The Arkansas World Trade Center is connecting the state to the global economy. The AWTC, a member of the World Trade Centers Association, has a direct link to more than 750,000 businesses worldwide.
Many people associate the World Trade Center name with the buildings destroyed on Sept. 11, said Dan Hendrix, CEO of the AWTC. While its headquarters in those flagship buildings were destroyed, the association has 294 locations throughout 85 countries.
The goal of the non-political, non-profit association is to bring peace and stability to the world through trade. These are the doors that have opened up to the Arkansas business community.
Still, not many people know the AWTC exists or just what it can do.
The AWTC is owned by the University of Arkansas. Chancellor John White said he views the AWTC as an outreach to stimulate the state’s economy — export Arkansas goods and services and attract business and investment.
Hendrix said the goal of the AWTC is to provide a one-stop shop for international business.
It has offices for Latin America trade development, Asia trade development, the Mexican consulate and the Department of Commerce. Whether it’s Shanghai or Sao Paulo, the AWTC can connect Arkansas businesses with markets around the world.
“We’re really matchmakers,” Hendrix said. “The world trade center is a matchmaking organization. Then we use the Department of Commerce and governmental agencies to facilitate and execute trade by understanding what tariff rules and regulations might be and what the country’s restrictions might be.”
Hendrix gave an example of a business that approached the AWTC looking to expand its international reach. The company wanted to import coffee beans from Central America. Hendrix brewed up contacts with a freight forwarder and custom house broker to assist the company in moving its product. Another time, Hendrix helped a Northwest Arkansas company find business opportunities in Spain.
“There are hundreds of those types of opportunities throughout the state,” Hendrix said.
“We bring in the World Trade Center network and we can broadcast to all of the world trade centers across the world, saying we have this company, this product, ‘Please connect this product with your member companies.’”
The AWTC combines informal and formal networks. With the massive, and proprietary, database of the World Trade Centers Association, businesses can easily find each other.
The AWTC’s resources monitor trade transactions throughout the world to see what is moving in and out of certain countries, but also tonnage and companies involved.
There is a large world of commerce available to Arkansas businesses. The U.S. annually exports more than $10 trillion of goods, but Arkansas accounts for less than one percent of that trade.
Nearly 50 percent of Arkansas’ $4.3 billion of exports go to just three countries: Canada, Mexico and France. But the AWTC brings a new dynamic to the economy.
“We’re trying to make a positive impact for the citizens of the state and continue to build the quality of life here for our citizens, and bring jobs and investment to the state,” Hendrix said.
While the AWTC is located in Northwest Arkansas, more specifically in the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers, it works for the whole state.
“There are a number of areas in the state that we have an opportunity to serve better,” White said. “We want to make sure it becomes an Arkansas world trade center.”
The biggest challenge facing the AWTC is getting the word out across the state about the services available.
Hendrix has been working with the Crossroads Coalition, a group of 10 counties in eastern Arkansas, to promote economic development. He also has been in contact with the six-county Cornerstone Coalition in southeast Arkansas.
“We’re meeting with industry groups,” he said, “talking about economic development, talking about the World Trade Center and asking these individuals, these entrepreneurs and these companies how we can assist them.”

Beyond Business
The AWTC is rare in that it is owned by a university. World trade centers often utilize the resources of area universities, but the relationship between the UA and AWTC creates a stronger educational component to the facility’s offerings.
Joseph Ziegler, director of International Business Studies at the UA Walton College of Business, said the University is still in the process of developing the academic component. Because the effort to open the AWTC happened so quickly, the academic programs are just catching up.
“It is a unique opportunity for the university to help the business community,” he said, “and at the same time provide unique experiences for our students and our faculty that allow them to apply the theory of business with the application of business.”
Ziegler was part of the AWTC delegation that traveled to Italy in February. On the trade mission, the Walton College entered into an agreement with Universit? Degli Studi Di Brescia and Instituto Internationale Per Lo Sviluppo Sostenibile.
One of the immediate outcomes of the mission is the invitation and scholarship for one student to participate in summer school at Brescia’s Institute for Studies on Economics and Employment, taught by two Nobel-prize winners.
The agreement called for mutually beneficial programs, but they’re mostly conceptual at this point.
“We’re very much in a developing relationship phase to see what each other has and how we can take full advantage of it,” Ziegler said.
Some of the ideas include student and faculty exchanges and internship exchanges placing UA students with Italian companies and Italian students in Arkansas’ companies.
Another possibility would be a program of courses for local businesses doing international business. Courses could range from theoretical concepts to practical information, such as how to line up credit for international business.
The AWTC may also include more than just the Walton College. Already, the AWTC has called upon the Fulbright College’s department of foreign language for interpreters.

The Set Up
The University of Arkansas is one of four universities that owns world trade center. The Rhode Island World Trade Center is owned by Bryant University. World Trade Center Alaska is owned by the University of Alaska. The Montana World Trade Center is owned by the University of Montana, which actually is where the idea started for the AWTC.
U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., got the idea for the AWTC while talking with Montana’s U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont.
The Big Sky setup stirred the interest of Boozman. In April 2006, he called a meeting at the Embassy Suites with Chancellor John White and other UA officials as well as other business and community leaders. Boozman wanted a world trade center, and he wanted the UA to own it.
After the meeting, White said they went over to The Pinnacle Group’s office in the J.B. Hunt Tower. Boozman asked White how soon he could get a world trade center; by fall, he replied.
White said Boozman then put the pressure on him saying, “I want you to think big.”
Boozman’s, and then White’s, vision would be carried out by Hendrix.
The application process to the World Trade Centers Association requires support from businesses and government leaders.
That was no problem. Hendrix said letters of support came from Lee Scott, CEO and John Menzer, vice chairman, of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Tyson Foods Inc. and The Pinnacle Group also wrote letters. In the political arena, Boozman, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee and U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.
Proving the financial fortitude was another step in the process. Again, the money came.
The initiation fee for the association is $200,000, and dues require the AWTC to pay $10,000 annually. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission stepped in with a check for the full amount. The catch was that the money was required to be paid to a city, so Rogers mayor Steve Womack graciously accepted the check and then turned it over to the UA and the AWTC.
Continuing expenses will require continuous fund raising. Hendrix said annual operating costs, once fully functioning, may run upwards of $750,000. But with the money already received, such as a five-year, $1.7 million commitment from the Walton Family Foundation Charitable Trust, the AWTC is sustainable for about five years.
One more aspect to the AWTC would be the location. Building a new site would be out of the question, so the Pinnacle Group offered a generous deal. The Pinnacle Group donated a 5,500-SF space on the fourth floor of the building on Champions Drive. The space is rent-free, leaving the AWTC with just the utility bills.
An aggressive build-out process, with Crossland Construction, Tucker Sadler Architects and Lockwood 2 Creations, helped meet timelines and allowed Hendrix to look forward to office operations.
Hendrix toured other world trade centers in the U.S., looking for the best practices to implement in the AWTC.
On Sept. 15, Hendrix had just visited the San Diego WTC and was driving to the Long Beach, Calif. WTC. It was then when he got the phone call that the WTC association had approved the AWTC.
Originally, the UA planned to have a press conference in October for the announcement, but news was beginning to leak, and the AWTC was announced Sept. 18.
It took less than a year from the initial meeting with Boozman, just to see if the idea was feasible, to opening the AWTC for business on Jan. 15, 2006.
“I was able to watch Dan work his magic,” White said.

Hendrix at Home
Hendrix was working at the UA to take the new position of director of corporate and foundation relations when White asked him to spearhead the AWTC effort.
“It was something I jumped on,” he said. “It was something that I was very passionate about because I had been working with it since April. I knew world trade with a background in international commerce. It was something I was excited about, having the opportunity to get back into that arena, knowing the impact we could make in Arkansas and this region.”
Hendrix’s career in transportation and logistics started in 1969 with Fort Smith-based ABF Corp. Working his way through the company, he eventually became CEO of ABF’s subsidiary Container Carrier Corp. That company eventually merged with another subsidiary, Trans State Lines Inc. But after the 1988 hostile takeover of ABF, the company was spun-off.
Hendrix later became a consultant for Trucks for You Inc. in Muskogee, Okla. He eventually became senior vice president and general manger.
Having to commute from his home in Fayetteville, there was some relief when the UA approached Hendrix with the newly created position of director of corporate and foundation relations.
In that position he held since 2001, one of his greatest memories was the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century in which he helped net $1.04 billion during the capital campaign.
Hendrix wore two hats for a time — CEO of the AWTC and director of corporate and foundation relations — but he relinquished the latter in November to focus on opening the AWTC.
“With my background in transportation and logistics and 12 years in the import/export business, it seemed to be a good fit for me to do that.”
He enjoyed his job at the UA, but making the transition to lead the AWTC was easy.
“I’ve really been preparing for this job all my working career,” Hendrix said. “To have this opportunity, to be in this role at this time in Arkansas is just something that I never ever really believed would happen.”