The Compass Conference to feature Maria Haley, 2010 regional economic look

The first annual The Compass Conference will include comments from Arkansas’ economic development chief and the regional boss of Sparks Health System in Fort Smith and Summit Medical in Van Buren.

The Compass Conference is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Feb. 16, at the Fort Smith Holiday Inn City Center. Tickets are $40 each, or $350 for a table of eight. The conference is a joint program of The City Wire and the economic development division of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Seating is limited. To reserve tickets, contact Whitney Yoder at the chamber, 783-3111, or [email protected]

Maria Haley, director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Britt Reynolds, division I president for Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates, and noted economist Jeff Collins are the featured speakers for The Compass Conference. The emcee is John Taylor, senior vice president of John Taylor Financial-Sterne Agee and a member of the board of directors at Fort Smith-based Benefit Bank.

“The Compass will be valuable to those of us who live here as well as those outside our area making decisions that impact us. Even if I were not in the business of putting myself out there and giving people advice on how to plan for the future I could find multiple uses for this data,” Taylor has said about The Compass report. “I love that there are current indicators as well as leading indicators. Why shouldn’t an area as vibrant and important as ours have our own economic measure instead of being cast in with Little Rock and NWA?”

Collins, the economist for The City Wire’s Compass Report, will review the 2009 health of the Fort Smith regional economy, with most of his focus on possible regional economic directions in 2010.

MARIA HALEY
Haley leads more than 100 employees at the AEDC, and came to the state with extensive national and international experience. She was born in the Philippines, and educated in India, Pakistan, France and Spain. Her work experience includes senior director for Asia with the Kissinger McLarty Associates (2001-2007); board member with the Export-Import Bank of the United States (1994-1999); special assistant in the Presidential Personnel Office at the White House (January 1993-October 1994); and advisor to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo (2001-2002).

Haley was an official of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission from 1979 to 1992. She was in charge of the Arkansas overseas offices in Brussels, Tokyo and Taipei. She coordinated then Gov. Bill Clinton’s trade and investment missions overseas and was staff advisor to the governor on trade at the National Governors’ Association.

BRITT REYNOLDS
Reynolds joined HMA in 2008, and worked directly for the past seven years with HMA President and CEO Gary Newsome when both were employed by another hospital company.

Reynolds’ responsibilities as division I president include overseeing and coordinating operations with hospital executive leadership teams, medical staffs and governing boards in Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

During the last 22 years Reynolds has worked in the proprietary and not-for-profit sector in divisional, multi-facility, hospital CEO and other hospital executive leadership areas. He has worked with major healthcare organizations including Community Health Systems, HCA and Humana.

JEFF COLLINS
Collins, a nationally known economist, worked as the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas’ Sam Walton College of Business between August 1999 and Dec. 31, 2006. While there, he was instrumental in crafting the now-popular “Skyline Report,” an analysis of residential and commercial construction in Northwest Arkansas.

Collins’ research also included working with the Walton Family Foundation to study the economic impact of a Benton County art museum (Crystal Bridges).

He co-founded in 2007 Streetsmart Data, a Springdale-based company that provides economic analysis to businesses and governments around the country.

THE COMPASS REPORT
Funded and managed by The City Wire and presented by Benefit Bank, The Compass is a quarterly regional economic report with data collection and analysis handled by Collins, a nationally known economist based in Springdale and co-founder of Streetsmart Data Services. Cox Communications and the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce are also sponsors of The Compass.

The Compass, launched during the first quarter of 2009, is the only comprehensive economic analysis of the Fort Smith metropolitan area.

The overall grade for the third quarter of 2009, based on eight sets of data and Collins’ analysis of the information, was a D. The grade means that relative to the region’s historic economic performance, the third quarter of 2009 saw economic decline, but saw economic gain compared to the second quarter of 2009 (D-). The first quarter of 2009 was given an overall grade of D+.

Jackie Krutsch, president of the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce, said in early 2009 that the “fresh look” at the regional economy will be helpful in many ways.

“I see this type of analysis as an instrument that the region can use to establish important goals for the future. During times like these the picture is not always pretty.  However, seeing the good, the bad and the ugly is important if we are to strive to move the regional economy forward,” Krutsch said. “It appears that The Compass is about an analysis of local data, not just a reporting of blips on the radar screen.”