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Forty Under 40

Ayoola Carleton, Maneesh Krishnan, Ashlie Hilbun, Curtis Norris, Dr. Johnathan Goree and Molly Rawn are members of this year's class of 40 Under 40.
Agriculture & Poultry / Banking & Finance / Business Services

Presenting the 40 Under 40 Class of 2021: Our Annual Look at Promising Young Leaders

Normal and routine has never felt as exciting as it does in 2021, which is why it is a pleasure to bring you this 28th class of Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 honorees. read more >

Steven Webb, Unity Health (40 Under 40)

Steven Webb decided to go into health care after his son was born premature. While at the hospital with his child, who was in the neonatal intensive care unit, Webb saw how all employees, from doctors to food service workers, played a role in his care. read more >

Dan Oberste, BSR (40 Under 40)

Dan Oberste confesses that he was a little kid who loved to build things, complete with “mushy stories” of building sand castles. When the Little Rock native got to college, he realized he wanted to build companies, and real estate captured his imagination professionally. read more >

Bailey Faulkner, Ozark Mission Project (40 Under 40)

Bailey Faulkner studied journalism and political science at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and was working at a state agency when she discovered new purpose in life. read more >

Craig Vick, Colliers International (40 Under 40)

Craig Vick wanted to do something in the business arena heading toward college. He heeded advice to pursue accounting as a career, advice that brought him to Colliers International Arkansas in 2013. That’s when Vick was named the inaugural chief financial officer for the state’s largest commercial realty concern. read more >

Katie Niebaum, Arkansas Advanced Energy Association (40 Under 40)

After a dozen years in Washington working for U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and the National Restaurant Association, Katie Niebaum returned in 2016 to lead the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association. read more >

Scott Davis, MobX (40 Under 40)

Scott Davis believes that every day should be enjoyable, for him, for his family and for his employees, because “if you love what you do and you get the flexibility to care about your family and your personal life, then you do better work for everybody.” read more >

Katherine Vasilos, CJRW (40 Under 40)

Katherine Vasilos grew up in Hot Springs and earned a degree in public relations from the University of Central Arkansas in 2009. “It was a scary time. The economic downturn had everyone worried ... but I was lucky enough to find a path that worked for me,” she sai read more >

Laura Nick, Garver (40 Under 40)

Laura Nick intended to pursue a career in advertising after she graduated in 2002 from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. read more >

Mandy Davis, Jericho Way (40 Under 40)

Mandy Davis says she’s not concerned with “process”; she’s concerned with outputs and outcomes. read more >

Jonathan VanHorn, DentistMetrics (40 Under 40)

Jonathan VanHorn started a consulting company in response to mergers and acquisitions in the dental industry, and DentistMetrics evolved into a niche CPA firm. read more >

Nick Morgan, Marco’s Pizza (40 Under 40)

Nick Morgan was hosting a pregame party when then-CEO Kirk Thompson of J.B. Hunt Transport Services stopped by and the two struck up a fast friendship. Morgan later went to work at J.B. Hunt at Thompson’s urging, and when Morgan decided he wanted to open his own business, Thompson lent him the money to open a Marco’s Pizza franchise. read more >

William Cunningham, Entergy Arkansas (40 Under 40)

William Cunningham wanted to follow his electrician father’s footsteps, but his parents urged him to be the worker designing systems, not the guy running the wires. read more >

Tonya Thompson, Thompson Beauty Brands (40 Under 40)

Prior to catching the entrepreneurial bug, Tonya Thompson earned her marketing management degree from Arkansas State University and started working in a Dillard’s store. But Thompson wanted more, so she worked her way up to brand manager at the corporate level for Dillard’s. read more >

Diana McDaniel, Arkansas Children’s Northwest (40 Under 40)

Diana McDaniel said she knew she wanted to work as a public servant and, luckily, she was exposed to Arkansas Children’s Hospital while working on her master’s degree in public administration at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. read more >

Natalie Bartholomew, Grand Savings Bank (40 Under 40)

Natalie Bartholomew has known she was going to be a banker ever since she was a little girl playing bank on her family’s five-generation farm in Prairie Grove. read more >

Eddie Thomas, Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District (40 Under 40)

Eddie Thomas champions education, but when he entered the University of Arkansas at Monticello out of Warren High in 1997, like many teenagers he was unprepared for the commitment and dropped out. read more >

J.D. Lowery, Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas (40 Under 40)

J.D. Lowery’s motto is to treat everybody like he’d treat the boss. It keeps him humble and helps in recruiting and retaining businesses in areas served by the state’s electric co-ops. read more >

Wes Anderson, Bank OZK (40 Under 40)

After six years in the minors pursuing a professional baseball career with the Florida Marlins, Wes Anderson decided to walk off the mound in 2003. read more >

Nate Steel, Steel Wright Gray (40 Under 40)

It was practically a given that Nate Steel was going to be a lawyer. “Every male in a direct line in my family has practiced law in southwest Arkansas,” said Steel, making him the sixth generation to practice. read more >