Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty: A Global Career Grounded In Hope

Editor’s note: This story, written by Eric Francis, appears in the latest magazine edition of Talk Business Arkansas. McLarty will be inducted in the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame on Friday night.

Born on Flag Day in 1946, Mack McLarty – the guy who was given the nickname “Mack the Nice” while working in the toughest political city in the world, Washington, D.C. – always looks back to the place he (as well as two Arkansas governors and a United States president) grew up when talking about how he got where he is today.

“I’ve had some unique opportunities and great privileges over my lifetime. A big part of that was growing up in Hope and being raised by my parents, Helen and Frank McLarty,” said Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty. “They were such redeeming and exemplary role models.”

McLarty and his wife of 44 years, Donna, have made Little Rock their primary residence for the past four decades. But he is still involved with his family’s businesses in Hope, including a Ford dealership founded by his grandfather and now on its fourth generation with his two sons.

His business roots in Arkansas stretch back to well before he entered public service as Bill Clinton’s first White House chief of staff, most notably as chairman and chief executive officer at Arkla Inc., where one of his employees was a fellow by the name of Skip Rutherford, who is now the dean of the Bill Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock. He minces no words when describing his former boss and long-time friend.

“There is no better human being on the face of the Earth,” said Rutherford, who worked for McLarty from 1983 to 1992 and with him in other capacities since then. “He is just about as good as it gets – fair, hard-working, open-minded, generous, and one of the nicest people you will ever be with or work with. He just sets the bar so high, the way he lives and works.”

Describing McLarty as “one of those business leaders who has a genuine concern, compassion, and advocacy for the least among us,” Rutherford said he took that demeanor to the Clinton White House with him, sharing a story he felt illustrated how well-grounded McLarty is.

“We were at an event in Washington and we were signing the guestbook,” he said. “It said ‘name and hometown,’ so Mack signs the book with Mack McLarty and Hope, Arkansas. I signed it Skip Rutherford and Little Rock.

“Afterward I walked over to him and said, ‘Mack, you don’t live in Hope anymore.’ And he said, ‘Skip, it asked for your hometown – Hope will always be my hometown,” said Rutherford. “And then he said, ‘You’re the one who made the error, you should’ve put Batesville.’”

Today McLarty’s endeavors extend well beyond the Hempstead County line. The co-founder and chairman of McLarty and Associates, an international consulting firm he likens to “a private-sector State Department,” he works with governments and industry around the world. In a lot of ways, he said he sees that work as an extension of the goals of the Clinton administration in which he worked.

“I think of how it relates directly to people’s lives in Arkansas and our country if you’re helping our companies go abroad in the right way, establish the right kinds of relationships, increase exports – those are good-paying U.S. jobs,” said McLarty. “I think there’s a direct linkage in what we try to do for our clients and the citizens of our country, including the citizens of the state of Arkansas. If you look at some of the great companies in Arkansas, the world is so interconnected what happens there matters over here and what happens here matters over there. You can see that in stock market prices, oil prices, so many areas.”

So, is there a particular advantage on the world business stage in being from Arkansas? McLarty laughs heartily at the opportunity to shill for his home state.

“You’re not talking to an objective source in me… you’re going to get a sales pitch, but it’s absolutely from the heart,” he said. “I would start with our people: Industrious, hard-working, capable, grounded pretty firmly in faith and family – those are the virtues I think carry over to the workplace. Number two, we have an excellent quality of life in Arkansas…. Thirdly, I think Arkansas, for a lot of reasons but [particularly] because of our agricultural base, I think we have somewhat of an appreciation for the interconnectivity of the world, maybe better than some states. I think our friendly business atmosphere and attitudes are a big plus, as well.”

Now 67 and with a career that stretches well back into his life, McLarty says he hasn’t yet reached a point where he feels like he can hang up his hat and call it a day. He can’t be truly relaxed, he explained, unless he was engaged in something he felt was meaningful.

“I kind of look at it this way, that you could be content that you’d done things to the best of your ability, knowing we’re all human and never quite get it as right as we like,” said McLarty. “But I don’t quite see myself just propping my feet up and not continuing to be engaged as long as I had good health.”