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Best Quotes of 2024Lock Icon

4 min read

The best quotes of 2024 from Arkansas business leaders, innovators, and officials—insights on challenges, growth, and the unique spirit driving the state forward.


“What is cheating really? To me, cheating is just another form of winning. Cheating has gotten a terribly bad rap.”
— An observation by SQRL founder Joseph Blake Smith in his book, “The Comeback.”


“These are organized crime operations.”
Christopher Wright, co-founder of Sullivan Wright Technologies of Little Rock, referencing the agents behind a recent rise in data breaches and cyber threats.


“You can’t say FUBAR in Arkansas Business, but it has been a mess for years. People want to take the easy way [to drive]. I-30 has not been the easy way for us in years.”
Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, about the delays in the completion of the I-30 widening project in Saline County.


“This was probably a little bit of a wake-up call for other venture capital firms, because they’re not going to want to miss out on things like this.”
Taylor Otwell, founder of Laravel of Little Rock, after raising $57 million in Series A funding through venture firm Accel.


“Storm-related claim expenses had a significant impact on the solvency of a number of our insurers in our state, bringing them dangerously close to no longer offering coverage to our citizens.”
— Arkansas Insurance Department Commissioner Alan McClain, discussing homeowners insurance rates.


“There are so many families that have been able to eat dinner at night and keep a roof over their heads just because of this industry.”
Brian Bigelow, a Flippin native and former boatmaker who runs Arkansas State University Mountain Home’s marine manufacturing program. Bigelow said boat manufacturers employ about 2,000 workers within 120 miles of his hometown, which has become a bass boat manufacturing mecca.


“I told the staff that morning that our goal was not ever to be the biggest bank in Arkansas but to be the best.”
George Gleason, chairman and CEO of Little Rock’s Bank OZK, looking back on his 1979 purchase of the $28 million-asset Bank of Ozark, the foundation for today’s $37 billion-asset lender and largest bank in Arkansas.


“There is a national shortage of veterinarians, described by many as crisis proportions. This shortage is acute and chronic.”
Dr. Eleanor Green, founding dean of the Lyon College School of Veterinary Medicine.


“We still love beer.”
Jesse Core of Core Brewing in Springdale, which has shifted its focus from beer to mixed drinks such as hard seltzers, vodka sodas and hard teas.


“It was nearly a colossal screw-up, putting them through this.”
— Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce CEO Randy Zook, describing a state investigation into whether Olivet International Inc., which has several operations in Arkansas, was owned by communist Chinese operators in violation of Arkansas law. Actually, co-owner Lydia Hsu is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, communist China’s arch enemy.


“It’s been a roller-coaster ride and, in hindsight, taught us a lot.”
Burt Hicks, president and chief strategy and growth officer of Little Rock’s Encore Bank on the bank’s up-and-down profitability during its six years of operation.


“Sam Walton, that famous Arkansan, taught us that if you buy things in large quantities, you get cheaper prices to pass on, and everybody wins.”
— CEO Vernon “Buddy” Hasten, describing Arkansas Electric Cooperative Inc.’s strategy of growing revenue through volume, not price markups.


“Then so be it.”
Dave Stickler, CEO of Hybar of Osceola, on making northeast Arkansas a showcase for sustainable steel production.


“Those poor people lost their houses, businesses and everything. Their bankers and lenders didn’t even require them to buy flood insurance. There’s really no climate safety zone to escape to anymore in America.”
— Insurance executive Andrew Meadors, describing hurricane victims in mountainous, inland Asheville, North Carolina.


“I still very much think of myself as an Arkansan and a Southerner.”
— Google DeepMind Director and Arkansas native John Jumper after winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.


“Look for the guy who says it’s going to cost the most and take the longest.”
Dave Gibbs, CEO of Mission Creek Resources LLC of Texas, describing oil industry wisdom on how to find the expert in the room on any huge project, in this case the building of a lithium extraction industry in south Arkansas’ brinefields.


“Turns out our client is a victim to the same fraud.”
Locke Adair, of Dallas law firm Farmer & Coker, in regards to the chaotic, controversial transfer of SQRL convenience stores by the chain’s founder Joseph Blake Smith.


“We are excited to come together as doulas with a unified voice and grow together and have the opportunity to make doula care more accessible in our state.”
Cora Crain, vice president of the Doula Alliance, referring to the recently formed Doula Alliance of Arkansas.


“Walmart has a noncancelable contract to buy a half a billion dollars of gloves and no customer to sell them to.”
Brendon DeMay, a partner at Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP of New York, who represented London Luxury LLC of New Rochelle, New York, in its lawsuit against the Bentonville retailer. Walmart was hit with a $101 million breach of contract judgment. Walmart denied the allegations of wrongdoing and has asked for a new trial.


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