AWF List Boasts Influential Executives

One of the state’s least-known corridors of power is made up of some of Arkansas’ best-known business minds.

The Arkansas Women’s Forum, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, is a statewide executive leadership and networking group based in Little Rock. An affiliate of the International Women’s Forum, AWF doesn’t raise money or seek publicity. It does not lobby government, espouse political agendas or champion causes.

Members such as Linda Dillman, executive vice president and chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, said AWF’s power is in its talent pool, which serves as a conduit for professional development. Through companies such as Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods Inc., Heifer International Inc. and Stephens Inc., the decisions AWF’s members make affect tens of thousands of Arkansans and even the global economy.

They get together several times a year and reenergize each other through powwows about business, leadership and life. It’s like the “Ya-Ya Sisterhood” of Arkansas boardrooms.

AWF’s complete 53-member roster is being made public for the first time in this issue (see chart here).

Dillman said although business leaders often do volunteer work and get involved in their communities, they’ve typically been called to contribute time, energy or resources. AWF, she said, is self-infusing.

Fortune magazine named Dillman one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” on Nov. 1.

It was the third-straight year that Dillman made the list, coming in at No. 29 last year. This year’s exact rankings will be announced the week of Nov. 7.

“When I joined the Arkansas Women’s Forum, I did it for me,” Dillman said. “I may have a lot of contact with CIOs and others in retail, but to be able to learn from women who have pioneered medical research, been innovators in education or leaders in nonprofits, is incredible.

“Sometimes, as senior leaders, we talk about how there’s not really very many places where you can go and be in a position to both give and receive. I get a whole heck of a lot out of this group.”

The History

Betty Tucker, AWF’s president, is the director of development of the Myeloma Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the former First Lady of Arkansas (Jim Guy Tucker’s wife). She said it wasn’t AWF’s intention to become elitists. A group of founding members simply decided to quietly focus on making the organization a catalyst for camaraderie and professional growth.

“The essence of the group is women empowering and nurturing other women,” Tucker said. “It’s just a wonderful opportunity to meet women from all over Arkansas and put our heads together and think about where we as women and leaders need to go.”

According to its Web site, the IWF was founded in 1982 and now reaches five continents, 21 nations and 60 affiliated forum locations such as Arkansas’. There are more than 3,800 members from the Middle East to middle America.

Tucker said AWF is at its largest size in history. The group has grown about 70 percent from only 30 members in the last few years.

Nearly 17 percent of its members are in law and politics, but AWF represents a diverse group of sectors and talents. About 70 percent of its members are from Little Rock, and the largest other concentration is in Northwest Arkansas, where there are six.

(Click here for a chart detailing membership by profession.)

The group also has two deceased members in Johnnie Holcomb, who worked in investment banking at Stephens Inc., and Betsy Blass, who died in late October. Blass was a well-known philanthropist in Little Rock.

The Invite

No one joins AWF. They call you.

Tucker said AWF doesn’t cap its membership per se. But between the handful of additions selected each year, and older participants gradually taking their memberships “inactive,” the annual net growth is typically only a few people.

AWF’s nominating committee adheres to IWF guidelines. It’s looking for women who are directly responsible for policy-making decisions in their organizations.

Diane Alderson of El Dorado said nominees should be at the top of their fields. Alderson is a longtime philanthropist and only the second female University of Arkansas trustee when she served from 1972-1984.

“I imagine we’re very much what it used to be like in the old Victorian smoking parlor where the men went and talked,” Alderson said. “Our gatherings are about the only time we don’t have to be responsive to someone else.”

Rebecca Garner, president and chief investment officer of Garrison Asset Management in Fayetteville, is the incoming president for 2006-2007. She describes AWF’s value to prospective members this way:

“I say, ‘How often do you go into a room or meeting where whatever energy is in the room is what you created?’ For these women, it’s usually every time. That’s draining, and sometimes you just get all the energy sucked out of you. This group breaths it back in.”

Nominations are made in the spring and put to a vote in June or July. Selections require a nomination and a second, typically by someone in the nominee’s region.

AWF meets as many as eight times per year, but members are only required to attend two of those meetings. Garner said most of the time is spent sharing ideas.

“There’s no secret handshake or anything,” Garner said. “We’re all so old that we’d forget it anyway.”

The Room

AWF members get passionate talking about their group. Jo Luck, president and CEO of Heifer International Inc., demonstrated her zeal for AWF during the first week of November.

Even after an exhausting 16-hour plane trip home from Geneva, Switzerland, Luck made time to return a call about AWF.

“When you put so many dynamic leaders and accomplished people in the room together, it raises the entire level of IQ, the skills, the compassion and commitment to making a difference, not just in our state and country but in the world,” Luck said. “Our members are not just interested in Arkansas, but in global issues.”

Luck’s firm sponsored AWF’s anniversary event Nov. 4-5 at The Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. The weekend included tours of the Clinton Presidential Library and Heifer International.

Luck and “inactive member” Betty Bumpers, the noted humanitarian and founder of Peace Links (also wife of former governor and U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark.), have received IWF awards for being “women who’ve made a difference.”

Vicki Stephens is president of C.C. Jones Trucking Inc. and the first woman in the 72-year history of the Arkansas Trucking Association to serve as its chairman.

She said it’s a thrill to be part of a group that is Arkansas history.

“I’m used to being the minority in the room, and that’s really what we share at AWF,” Stephens said. “We all understand the unspoken stuff. Women leaders have to maintain a persona, but in that room, we’re all the same.”

The Results

The IWF’s Fellows Program is hardcore leadership development paired with a mentoring program. Dillman spent the last year serving as a mentor to Julia H. Segars, vice president and chief information officer of Alabama Power, Southern Nuclear and Southern Services in Birmingham, Ala. The firms are subsidiaries of publicly traded Southern Co.

The Fellows class does a week of intensive business and case study learning at Harvard University, and a week on international issues at Cambridge University in England.

Segars said she’s spoken to Dillman once a month, and she even got to visit Bentonville for Wal-Mart’s annual shareholders meeting.

“I had just become a vice president, and there were personal development issues I wanted to work on,” Segars said.

“I wanted to work on public speaking and growing into my role. Getting to meet Linda’s staff, watch her lead some meetings and watching her big presentation at the shareholders meeting was incredibly valuable.

“It’s been a once in a lifetime chance to shadow someone of her caliber, and she’s also as down-to-earth as anyone gets. She has helped me gain confidence and our company has even benefited from being able to benchmark some things with Wal-Mart.”

Dillman said 20 years ago she wouldn’t have been ready for AWF, but five years ago, it could have really helped her as a leader.

“The key for younger women leaders is to continue building their careers and distinguishing themselves in their own way,” Dillman said. “You can model yourself a little after others, but ultimately, you have to figure out what your own contribution will be.”