Stockman not seeking return to Fort Smith IEC post

Michelle Stockman is not seeking a return to her former job as the director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Fort Smith.

Fort Smith City Administrator Dennis Kelly said at the city’s Tuesday night board meeting that the search for a new IEC director was on hold because Stockman had expressed an interest in returning to the job.

Stockman (pictured at right), who accepted the job in April 2007, resigned in November to work for Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. Her roles at ACC include marketing, community relations and implementing entrepreneurial programs statewide.

Kelly, along with University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Chancellor Paul Beran and Sandy Sanders, interim president of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, are the selection committee and have received several applications for the position.

Stockman told The City Wire late Tuesday she had approached Beran about managing the IEC through her role at ACC, with the IEC using the salary for a director to instead develop a permanent staff. Stockman said part of her job is to create entrepreneurship centers around the state, so she thought it would be a reasonable plan to guide the IEC for a few months or maybe a year as part of the effort.

“It was a good idea and (all parties) were interested at first, but it just didn’t work out,” Stockman said, adding that “both sides could not come to an agreement on terms.”