Forty Under 40: Kyle Jack, 33

A year from graduating with a computer drafting and design degree, Kyle Jack left Missouri Southern State College to join what he called “the school of hard knocks” in prototyping, packaging and displays.
He began production work in 1998 at A&B Reprographics Inc. in Bentonville. In 2003, one of its clients, startup company Rapid Prototypes, asked Jack to be general manager. He accepted and bought the company a few years later with his family.
“It was a struggle to make the decision to leave A&B, but I knew I would probably never go any higher than I was,” he said.
Rapid Prototypes has tripled its annual business since 2003.
“There’s a real need in the market for a business like ours,” he said, naming major clients such as Coleman and other Wal-Mart suppliers. “Fortunately, we had the foresight to build it early on.”
Jack said the company designs prototypes in a fraction of the time and with more accuracy than other companies can do in their corporate facilities, without extra costs.
Naming his real motivation, Jack said, “I want my family to be able to say that I’m the owner of Rapid Prototypes and for that be an accomplishment,” he said.
Outside of work, Jack sits on the board of Let’s Bring Them Home, a nonprofit for children’s rights and missing adults.