Forty Under 40: Wayne Woolsey

Springdale native Wayne Woolsey’s career took flight right out of high school. He immediately started training and was piloting the likes of Reba McEntire and Billy Joel for Houston-based Prestige Touring by the time he was 19.

In 1995, Woolsey and his wife, Blake, moved back to Fayetteville. He freelanced for about a year before landing a gig as Alice Walton’s pilot.
During most of this time, he also ran Outter Limit Provisions, which sold outdoor adventure gear and personalized guided hunting tours to exotic locales. He sold that business in 1999, and in 2000 began working full time for Marlin Holdings out of Florida, where he was the chief pilot in charge of the company’s Hawker jet. For the next five years he was on-call to fly well-heeled clients all over Europe and Central and South America. Then, with another child on the way, he went back to freelancing so he could be home more.

In 2007, Woolsey, 39, again married his love of hunting and the outdoors with business. He started Wayne’s Wicked Enterprises, which makes firearm saftey and game recovery equipment. The gear has the potential to save hundreds of lives annually.

WWE can be more adventurous than 20 years of flying: “In aviation, I had control, but starting your own business you are sometimes the passenger,” he said.