Forty Under 40: Jeffrey Coats

Jeffrey Coats met his future wife while both were in optometry school in Tennessee. He grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and loved mountain biking. She grew up in south Arkansas and graduated from the University of Arkansas.

When they finished their schooling, all signs pointed to Northwest Arkansas.

“We knew this was where we wanted to live and start a family,” he said.

Coats graduated from the University of Missouri with a biology degree in 2010 and from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis in 2014. In 2016, shortly after moving to Northwest Arkansas, Coats connected with Derrick Pierce, an optometrist who founded Bentonville Eye Center in 2012.

That connection was an immediate success, and in 2018, Coats bought into the business as a 50-50 business partner. Since then, they’ve gone from renting on Walton Boulevard to building a 7,000-square-foot building in the city, which opened in January 2022.

Coats said investing in Bentonville was an easy decision.

“We bought some land thinking we’d build maybe a decade later,” Coats recalled. “We were growing well enough to do that sooner. We got to where we were booked out about two months or so and were unable to meet the needs of our community.”

Bentonville Eye Center has grown to four associates and 15 staff members. To meet increased demand, the company recently opened a satellite clinic in Rogers’ Pinnacle Hills area.

Coats said he is most proud of owning and growing a private practice, which provides the opportunity to practice both as a clinician and a business leader.

In optometry school, Coats was a member of the nonprofit SVOSH (Student Volunteers in Optometric Service for Humanity), volunteering in Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Belize.