Then and Now: Relationships key to Steve Cox’s career

Steve Cox builds relationships. That’s been the common denominator in every job he’s had – from his early days at Arvest Bank, to his 14-year career at the Rogers Lowell Chamber and now as director of client solutions at SafeHaven Security Group in Rogers.

Instead of building relationships to sell the area, he’s building relationships to sell security.

“With the chamber, it was let’s create jobs, let’s create capital investment,” he said. “That’s what economic development is – instead of selling a specific product, you’re selling the community as a place to invest in and as a place for people to live, work and play. Let’s make this place a better place to live. And (with SafeHaven), we’re making our clients and the communities that we serve safer places to live. The services we provide ensure that everybody who clocks in to work in the morning clocks out and gets home safe. And that’s what we want. We’re creating safer environments.”

Cox, 43, graduated from John Brown University in 2004 with a degree in broadcast communications, and then spent six years at Arvest Bank, working his way to the asset management division. Then the recession arrived. So, he shifted gears and joined the Rogers Lowell Chamber as senior vice president of economic development, where his responsibilities included new business recruitment, workforce placement and job creation.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute, Cox said he helped bring billions of dollars of capital investment to the area, helped create thousands of jobs, and helped thousands of local school children understand, through the Kindergarten to Job Connect Program, that there were local, in-demand careers that didn’t require a college degree. He also launched the chamber’s Voice of Business podcast. He was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2013.

“To see the number of jobs, the investment, and to see the face of Rogers change over the course of those years was great,” he said. “To see the tremendous growth, not just of Rogers, but all of Northwest Arkansas, and to have a small role in helping bring that about is definitely something I hang my hat on.”

In 2025 Cox joined SafeHaven, a full-service boutique security firm, that has been around for a decade. It’s the largest private Arkansas-based security firm with about 300 employees. With a presence in eight states, the company is poised to expand to other states.

“It was an opportunity that came around, and I wanted to try something new,” Cox said.

A self-described team player, Cox looks “at the company’s success as my success, and my success as the company’s success. I’m not an expert in security by any way, shape or form, but we have those experts here at SafeHaven Security Group. And so for me to be able to open up that door, create the connection, and then just let the experts do their thing, that’s what it’s all about. It’s that team effort, making sure that everybody is successful within our organization.”

Cox’s role includes building the company’s uniform security business, working on government contracts, and implementing a CRM (customer relationship management) database. That’s part of creating more processes, because “at a rapidly growing company, there’s growing pains, and so we try to mitigate that by creating these systems and processes.”

Cox learned a lot from watching Mike Harvey with the Northwest Arkansas Council. “He’s got a regional approach in mind, and that’s the approach I took in economic development,” he said. “Yes, I’m working for Rogers, but a win for Bentonville is a win for Rogers because we’re all one community. Also, celebrating the small victories is something he would do.”

Cox is the immediate past president of the Arkansas Economic Developers and Chamber Executives Board of Directors, serves on the board of the Early Childhood Education Task Force and supports the Teen Action Support Center.

Married to Dr. Christina York, Cox enjoys golf, reading, going to concerts and playing video games with his son here and remotely with his father, who lives in Virginia. Cox has taken up jogging, with a goal of the Bentonville Half Marathon next year.