Mark Simmons, Three Others Picked for Business Hall of Fame

The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas on Feb. 7 is inducting four people into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

The inductees are Mark C. Simmons, chairman of Siloam Springs-based Simmons Foods Inc.; James H. Faulkner, founder of Little Rock advertising firm Faulkner and Associates; Thomas F. “Mack” McClarty, chairman of strategic planner McClarty Associates; and the late Stanley E. Reed of Marianna, a former long-term member of the Arkansas Farm Bureau.

Simmons is credited with growing Simmons Foods from a company with annual sales of $25 million in 1974 to a powerhouse with $1.4 billion in sales and more than 6,000 employees. A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Simmons is the son of company co-founder M.H. “Bill” Simmons.

“We are pleased to welcome these four outstanding business leaders to the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame,” said Eli Jones, Walton College dean. “They are being recognized among the best and brightest in Arkansas business, joining the distinguished list of members … All of the Hall of Fame’s members continue to inspire the future global business leaders with their outstanding achievements.”

The current inductees will join 62 others already enshrined. A selection committee of nine business and community leaders chose the inductees. Criteria included the significance of the impact the business leader made, concern for the community and ethics in business dealings.

Tickets to the black-tie event at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock are $150 per person. For more information, call 479-575-6146 or email [email protected].