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Rick Fleetwood, Robert Hupp Win Executive Honors at Arkansas Business of the Year Awards

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Rick Fleetwood, CEO of Snell Prosthetic & Orthotic Laboratory, and Robert Hupp, producing artistic director of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, won executive of the year awards at Tuesday’s 2012 Arkansas Business of the Year Awards at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, presented by Centennial Bank.

It was the 24th year for the annual event sponsored by Arkansas Business Publishing Group, which honors businesses in three categories, business executives, nonprofit executives and nonprofit organizations in Arkansas.

(Photos: Click to see a slideshow of photos from the event.)

Fleetwood received the Business Executive of the Year Award for his work at Snell, which specializes in custom-made and fitted prosthetic and orthotic devices from artificial limbs to braces.

The company has 56 employees and nine offices in Arkansas.

Robert Hupp received the Nonprofit Executive of the Year Award. He’s led the Rep for 12 years, overseeing the world premiere of a play about the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School called "It Happened in Little Rock," and driving a $5.4 million capital campaign that’s led to improvements at The Rep’s downtown theater.

Other winners at Tuesday night’s event:

Philander Smith College of Little Rock was named Nonprofit Organization of the Year. In 2007, the college was the first Arkansas college or university to give substantive effort to improve the rates of black men graduating. The college’s efforts have led to a black male graduation rate of 22 percent, up from 11 percent.

College President Walter Kimbrough said the work isn’t done; he hopes to escalate the graduation rate of black males to first or second place among colleges in Arkansas within three years.

The event also includes the Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation Awards, given by the Arkansas Community Foundation to honor businesses that support charitable and nonprofit endeavors in their respective communities.

Those honorees are:

Arkansas Business readers nominate businesses, executives and nonprofits for the awards, and an independent panel of judges determines the winners.

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