Forty Under 40: Bryan Billingsley, 36

Bryan Billingsley began working at HEBCO Inc. as a summer job while in high school. President of the locally owned and managed federal defense contractor since 2005, Billingsley said he’s done just about every job there is to do at the company his father co-founded in 1983.
HEBCO provides engineering and technical services to the Department of Defense and firms like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Over the years the company has offered support for more than 50 different weapons systems. The group also maintains and updates a variety of maintenance and flight manuals that explain any number of things — like telling A-10 pilots how to fly their plane.
Billingsley grew up in Norman, Okla., but a scholarship brought him to the University of Arkansas, where he earned an industrial engineering degree in 1997 and an MBA in 1998.
These are good days for the defense business. Billingsley reports 160 percent revenue growth since 2006, and in recent years the firm has doubled to about 100 employees. Even so, a fear of failure pushes this Sunday school teacher to stay busy and keep on doing his best.
His future? To continue in the field he first got interested in because of his father.
“I want to grow HEBCO,” he said. “I’m happy where I am right now.”