Mike Malone Resigns From Northwest Arkansas Council

Northwest Arkansas Council president and CEO Mike Malone is leaving the nonprofit next month.

According to a news release sent Thursday by the organization’s communications and policy director, Rob Smith, Malone will start working directly for brothers Steuart Walton and Tom Walton, coordinating a variety of initiatives in Northwest Arkansas “that elevate quality of life in the region.”

The Waltons are grandsons of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton.

Malone will remain president and CEO of the Council, a job he has held since 2006, through mid-September.

“Everyone knows how much I’ve enjoyed my work at the Northwest Arkansas Council over the past decade,” Malone said. “I will miss it, but I’m very excited about taking on new challenges that further advance Northwest Arkansas as one of the best places to live and work.

“I’m certain the Council staff and partners across the region will continue accomplishing great things.”

Donnie Smith, CEO of Tyson Foods Inc. and the Council’s presiding co-chair, said he knew Malone faced a difficult decision.

“He’ll certainly make a successful transition into his new role,” Smith said in the release. “Everyone in Northwest Arkansas knows Mike because he did a fantastic job of connecting the Council to hundreds of organizations across Arkansas, to local governments, to legislators and to business people.

“People across the state look to Mike because he has a great feel for what can be accomplished in Northwest Arkansas and who needs to be involved.”

Led by Donnie Smith, the Council’s executive committee will start the process soon to hire Malone’s successor, according to the release.

“We’ll work hard to find just the right person,” Smith said. “The Council’s leader must be a convener, an ambassador, a diplomat and a peacemaker. He or she will need to be cognizant of how the decisions we make today impact the region’s long-term future, and our leader must be sensitive to what’s best for Northwest Arkansas as a whole rather than what’s best for any individual community.”

Founded in 1990 by Sam Walton, Don Tyson, John Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Mark Simmons and a group of about 30 Northwest Arkansas business leaders, now-State Sen. Uvalde Lindsey was picked to be the organization’s first leader. When Lindsey retired in 2006, Malone relocated from Washington to his hometown of Fayetteville to start work as the Council’s president and CEO.

To read the entire release, click here.