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Rotary Club of Little Rock Honors Millie Ward

3 min read

Millie Ward, co-founder and president of Little Rock advertising agency Stone Ward, was honored Tuesday by the Rotary Club of Little Rock with its Business & Professional Leader of the Year Award.

She also received a Sidney M. Brooks Fellow medal and certificate. Named for the club’s first president, it is the highest honor bestowed by the civic organization.

Ward thanked many people during a lunch program Tuesday at the Clinton Presidential Library.

Her parents attended the event. She said they taught her the importance of commitment, having a plan and sticking to it, putting first things first, hard work and faith “above all things.”

About the agency’s team, Ward said, “They remind me every day that, if you have a business culture we can all believe in, it can be a foundation for mutual success, for giving back and for having a whole lot of fun doing every bit of that…I share this award in every way (with them).”

She also said she was grateful to work with all of Stone Ward’s clients and that the agency operates on 20 principles. 

“No. 19 is one of my favorites. It is ‘Do not confuse effort with results.’ There’s no bigger thrill or privilege for me than to help good companies get good results and succeed because of them,” she said.

She then shared what has become her “daily morning mantra,” a song she heard from her granddaughter during a grandparents’ program at Baptist Preparatory Academy in Little Rock.

Ward didn’t sing it, but recited the verses: “I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am a promise, a bundle of potentiality. And I am listening to hear God’s voice. And I am praying to make the right choice. I am a promise. That’s me.”

“It is humbling for me to be singled out in a room full of promise,” she said. “So I want to say thank you to each one of you for leading and serving and giving to make Little Rock and Arkansas a home for us like no other.”

Ward graduated from Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s of arts in communications.

She began her career as a copywriter at Gunter & Associates in Jonesboro, then joined Resneck Stone in 1984 and was promoted to partner. That agency became Stone Ward, and she was named president in 1991.

Stone Ward brought in more than $47 million in capitalized billings last year, employs 56 people, and has offices in Little Rock and Chicago.

Ward is the former chair of the Advertising Marketing International Network, which represents 26 agencies with $21 billion in capitalized billings.

She has been named to Arkansas Business’ “Power List” and “Top 100 Women” list and AdWeek’s “Women To Watch.” She was also named Woman Business Owner of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners.

In 2012, Sales and Marketing Executive International recognized her as Arkansas Top Manager of the Year, and Ward was inducted into the University of Arkansas Arkansas Business Hall of Fame last year. 

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