Forty Under 40: Jamie Henry

He might be a Michigan man, but he’s looking to lay down his roots here in Northwest Arkansas.

Jamie Henry, who holds two engineering degrees and an MBA, likes to solve problems on an epic scale. As a leading developer in the division of e-commerce and mobile payment systems for the world’s largest retailer, he gets to do just that.

“I was looking for what I found at Wal-Mart — the opportunity to combine technology and business to solve interesting problems,” he said. “That gets me going each morning.”

He arrived in Northwest Arkansas in 2010 via Denver, where he worked in e-commerce and online payment systems for First Data Corp., the world’s largest payment processor. At First Data, he worked with brands PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon Payment.

He and wife, Carissa, like this area so much they recently bought a piece of property in Bentonville and are about to build a house there. The family includes sons, Aaron and Adam, and Bo, a Great Pyrenees named after legendary Michigan football coach Glenn Edward “Bo” Schembechler.

“We enjoy the area and love spending time out at Beaver Lake,” he said. “Our plan is to stay here and make Bentonville our home.”