Crafton Tull Exec Remains Connected to Hometown

Joining the family business turned out to be a good idea for Jim Tull.

Tull, chief financial officer at Crafton Tull, started as an accountant 15 years ago at the firm his dad, Lem Tull, co-founded with Bob Crafton in 1963.

A graduate of Arkansas Tech University, Jim Tull worked various jobs in Dallas for six years before returning to Rogers, at his dad’s request, in 1993. Dallas had the bright lights and the big-city bustle, but it just wasn’t quite home.

Tull, 48, has since worked his way to the top, and with the recession fading, young hires on board and a new foothold in the natural-gas industry, Tull sees nothing but upside for the company that this year celebrates its 50-year anniversary.

Tull was a principal/treasurer with Crafton Tull when the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal honored him as a member of the 1997 Forty Under 40 class.

Looking back on his life and career, especially the recent past, Tull admits that it wasn’t always easy.

“There’s been a lot of tough times in the last five years, but all in all, I’ve been blessed,” he said.

“We had to let people go,” Tull said. “Those were difficult times. Our traditional work just wasn’t there.”

By blessed he meant he has a loving wife, Jennifer, three children — Ashleigh, Keifer and Madison — and an enduring connection to his hometown, Rogers.

And by blessed he also meant in the darkest hour came the brightest light. Just as the recession was threatening to devour Crafton Tull, the company landed a contract that would change the course of the company’s history.

Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. hired Crafton Tull to do land surveys in the Fayetteville Shale, the state’s highest producing gas field.

That was in 2007. Today, about 40 percent of Crafton Tull’s business comes from mapping pipeline and well sites for energy companies.

“Natural gas is the future,” Tull said. “We want to grow the energy division. We feel like the energy business is good business, and we want to grow it, slowly.”

Indeed, the family business has a foot firmly planted in the future.

While natural gas is a big part of Crafton Tull’s portfolio, the company still remains loyal to its roots.

Tull, for instance, beams with pride when he shows a photograph of the 16 civil engineers, all of them fresh college graduates, recently hired by Crafton Tull.

“These are good-paying jobs and these people will live here and raise their families here and that’s what we like,” Tull said.

He’s right. Crafton Tull is a destination, not a stepping-stone.

A big part of the success of Crafton Tull is its culture of service, ethics and production. Tull is steeped in that culture, and no one knows that better than Matt Crafton, president, CEO and the son of co-founder Bob Crafton.

“From a technical perspective, Jim is an excellent CFO,” Matt Crafton said. “You can’t get any better. But he is not just a CFO. He is connected to this community.”

His civic commitments are well documented through his involvement with, among others, St. Vincent De Paul Catholic School, the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce, the ALS Association of NWA, the Adult Development Center of Benton County and the Rogers Little Theater.

When Crafton Tull was breaking into natural gas, it was dealing with a new set of rules, paperwork and personalities. The company, however, was mature, and the gas industry eventually figured out Crafton Tull was serious.

Crafton, looking back on those heady days, thought about what he and Tull learned from their fathers.

“You build trust over time by consistent performance and ethics in everything you do,” he said. “You introduce that culture over time.”