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281405 EDITORS DESK06 AMP ONLINE08 BENCHMARKS10 RIGHT, CENTER, LEFT62 THE FIVE

DEPARTMENTS12 SPOTLIGHT A look at the 2016 Arkansas Business Hall of Fame inductees.

14 INFLUENTIAL A Q&A with Bill Scoop Lancaster.

28 ENTREPRENEURS A Bentonville hospitality company is bracing for a big year.

32 SPORTS The University of Arkansas new $25 million basketball practice facility.

36 REAL ESTATE How CapRocqs real estate investments benefit Arkansas.

40 TECHNOLOGY A Little Rock tech companys role in campaign fundraising.

48 EDUCATION Whats behind Southern Arkansas Universitys enrollment increase?

52 MANUFACTURING A Springdale company is making strides in nanotechnology.

56 MEDIA How local broadcasters cover Arkansas politics.

60 ECONOMICS The business of a fiscal session.

61 AGRIBUSINESS Highway funding and Arkansas agriculture.

COVER STORY20 HOW ARKANSAS CAN BE A NEXT-GENERATION LEADER

We take a look back at Gov. Asa Hutchinsons first year in office, some of his initiatives and what it means for Arkansas future.

FEATURE44 THE NO-SPIN ZONE

The Bureau of Legislative Research is a major behind-the-scenes player in state government, where it shares its wealth of institutional knowledge and takes a nonpartisan approach.

ON THE COVER: Ways Arkansas is leading the pack. Design by Sara Edwards Neal.

CONTENTS FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016

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Winthrop Rockefeller

When you start recognizing people like this, you wind up encouraging others with the kinds of things that can be done. Its remarkable.

Matthew Waller, interim dean, University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business

makes Waller most proud of the hall of fame and his schools work in spotlighting what these individuals do for Arkansas.

The selection process is rigorous. Accord-ing to Waller, the board of directors may only choose four people per year from the nomina-tions they receive. Once someone is nominat-ed, he or she can only stay on the nomination list for five years before they become ineligi-ble if they are not chosen.

Everyone is very worthy, and its a tough process each year, he explained. The nominations are lengthy, with several letters of recommendation for each. The selection committee sees the primary variable as this: Did the person make a real impact on busi-ness?

Because of the four-person annual limit, Tappan said, Incredibly there remain a great many nominees who have not been selected. Arkansas is blessed with an abundance of en-

terprising spirit.Lifelong ethical business practices of the

honoree are also important, Waller pointed out. This is because the hall is connected di-rectly to the College of Business, and, there-fore, with students at the University of Ar-kansas.

The mission of the school of business is to advance and disseminate business knowl-edge, Waller said. We have courses in eth-ics in the business college, so when we hold these people up, we want them to be people the students would aspire to be.

Waller, who joined the college in 1994 when he moved to the state from Michigan, believes Arkansans and the nation have something to learn about business in the Nat-ural State.

There are aspects of the business climate in Arkansas that may surprise those outside the state, and those within. Waller lists the

availability of capital as one key trait that makes entrepreneurship possible, and he cites the affordability of living in Arkansas,

as well. The transportation hubs dont hurt, either.

You can ship from Arkansas all over the world quite easily, he said. You dont need to be in New York City or Silicon Valley to succeed in business. Were quite successful at getting startups to grow.

Tappan agrees, describing Arkansas as having an abundance of talented, motivat-ed workers who support enterprise growth. The state has also been able to attract capi-tal and governmental structures favorable to business.

Each year, hall of fame inductees reiterate that Arkansas is a ripe ground for business success, from that first class and extending

into the future.

William T. Dillard II Dr. George K. Mitchell Patricia P. Upton

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founder of Devereux Management Company, which is involved in commercial projects in six states, and Mark Saviers, a partner with Sage Partners, a commercial real estate firm in Ar-kansas and managing partner of Myers, Crow & Saviers, a development partnership in Houston. Also on the investment are team are Stephen

and Jason LaFrance, whose family owned USA

Drug Stores before selling the chain in 2012 for nearly $450 million to Walgreens Co.

All of us really bring different kinds of ex-perience to the table, said Saviers of Little Rock.

Smith, who lives in Bella Vista, said every-one on the team focuses on different elements

and so the partnership actually works like part-nerships are supposed to with different people

pulling different strings.

The investment team meets weekly and only proposals that are supported unanimously move forward, Huchingson said.

Were pretty accessible guys and thats

pretty unique and frankly [our] investors kind

of like that, McLarty said.

Why CapRocq 3 is likely going to happen sometime [this] year is theres still opportunity within the strategy that we have created. Kevin Huchingson, co-founder, CapRocq Core Real Estate Fund

INVESTING IN REAL ESTATEThe Webster University building in Colum-bia, South Carolina, was acquired under CapRocq Core 2.

CapRocq founders Kevin Huchingson and Franklin McLarty.photography by sara edwards neal

You have to find these opportunities in these markets, Huchingson said, adding Cap-Rocq has relationships with business people throughout the South and Midwest and they are looking for investment opportunities.

McLarty said, There is a lot of money from all over the world coming into those markets and [our] ability to underwrite those markets, value real estate, understand the credit worthi-ness of tenants, many of them not rated by the debt rating agencies well, international inves-tors dont have that.

So far, Huchingson said, weve been for-tunate to have a very good alignment with our investors and the core strategies and thus far those strategies have worked out equally or better than we had hoped. McLarty added that CapRocq is always looking for investors We believe that as we go forward with CapRocq and beyond, we will naturally evolve on the in-vestor side as well.

All investment opportunities and decisions are considered by an investment leadership team of about 10 people, which includes Huch-ingson and McLarty, as well as Dewitt Smith,

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How Thinking SmallCan Pay Big

Springdale-based NanoMech is using nanotechnology to manufacture an array of products impacting a number of industries, including Arkansas trucking.

BY ERICA SWEENEY // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BETH HALL

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