Kinzler Named Arkansas Business Executive of the Year

Steve Kinzler, co-founder of The Wilcox Group Architects of Little Rock, was named Arkansas Business Executive of the Year on March 9 at the 2005 Arkansas Business of the Year Awards banquet at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

The annual awards ceremony, sponsored by Arkansas Business Publishing Group, honors small businesses, nonprofits and their executives.

Other nominees for the business executive award were Jay Bradford, First Arkansas Insurance of Pine Bluff; Ed Choate, Delta Dental of Arkansas of Sherwood; James Smith, Fikes Truck Line of Hope; and Steven Willmon, Brandon Co. of North Little Rock.

The night’s other award winners:

• Bob Young of Healthy Connections of Mena won Nonprofit Executive of the Year

• Arkansas Literacy Councils of Little Rock won Nonprofit Organization of the Year

• eDocAmerica of Little Rock won Business of the Year in Category I (1-25 employees)

• Airways Freight Corp. of Fayetteville won Business of the Year in Category II (26-75 employees)

• Welsco Inc. of North Little Rock won Business of the Year in Category III (76-300 employees)

Also March 9, the Arkansas Community Foundation gave out its Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation awards. This year’s awards went to First Security Bank of Clarksville, the Little Rock law firm of Mitchell Williams Selig Gates & Woodyard and Weyerhaeuser Co.

Candidates for Business Executive of the Year must lead a business with 300 or fewer employees. Nonprofits must be 501(c)3 organizations with annual operating revenue of less than $25 million.