Forty Under 40: Blair Cromwell

Blair Cromwell has had no less than six title changes at the Bentonville CVB. Her charge also changed recently, thanks to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

“Now we’re turning into a leisure market,” she said.

Cromwell now pitches Bentonville more as a national and international tourist destination than a good place for sports events and corporate meetings.

“I think your face lights up when you’re pitching something like Crystal Bridges,” Cromwell said. “Then, as people hear what you have to say, their jaws are dropping wider and wider.”

She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Arkansas in 1997, then earned master’s degrees in Latin American and Iberian studies at Vanderbilt. She and her husband moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2004 after visiting her brother and being impressed by its growth.

Cromwell worked at Northwest Arkansas Community College and the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce before moving to the CVB in 2006.

A Hamburg native, Cromwell recently had her third daughter, and expects to complete a CVB re-branding campaign in the next couple of months. She likes to hike and camp, is involved in a host of community events, and is one of the founders of the Bentonville Running Festival.

Cromwell still heeds some advice she received in Nashville.

“When you have a job to do, treat it like you own the business and you’ll never fail,” she said.