Year-End Message from CEO C. Sam Walls

There hasn’t been much said about it, but we are rapidly approaching the end of the first decade of this century. Looking back, I believe it has been a good time for our organization as we have significantly improved the level of contribution we make to the economic development of Arkansas. Though it has been a period of constant change for us, these have proven to be good changes with tangible results. In January, we will pass the billion dollar mark in the amount of capital our organization has participated in providing to Arkansas companies. In the twelve months after that, we are on track to increase that amount over ten percent. In 1990, no one knew that all but $44 million of that would occur in the following 20 years. In the mid 90s, this organization began discussions regarding increased involvement in getting recognition for the importance of entrepreneurship to our economy at a time when it was not on the radar screen. It was a fairly easy interest to cultivate because WE are an entrepreneurial enterprise. With that entrepreneurial culture, we have been willing to take risks associated with being out front and serving as a change agent and catalyst. The formation of Diamond State Ventures opened the door to elevate venture capital as a principal area of interest if we are to develop Arkansas companies. When the ACC Board of Directors authorized me 11 years ago to establish a collegiate business plan competition to spur entrepreneurialism, no one knew that in ten years it would become one of the leading events of its type in America and, among other achievements, produce competition winners from Arkansas who would ring the bell this past summer at the NASDAQ. No one knew in the first half of the decade that the Board’s authorization to pursue the competitively awarded federal tax credits would result in $140 million dollars of incentives for investment in Arkansas companies. And no one knew it at the time that the Board’s approval to accept the request from Governor Mike Beebe and the Arkansas Legislature to lead the effort to engage Arkansans in the availability and utilization of the Internet – the most transformational technology since the advent of electricity – that we were engaging in an effort with the potential to move our state’s rankings from near the bottom to the middle of the pack within a single generation. Now, we and our nation find ourselves in quite a different situation than that of the last decade. Some would say this is a most challenging situation we find ourselves in. I say the art of management is finding the way to achieve results within the environment in which we find ourselves. The ACC organization has proven itself adept at meeting this constant test and with the quality of its people; it will continue to do so. It requires us to always be mindful of the constant of change, to embrace it and to remain highly focused on operational excellence that is second to none. There is no doubt the coming decade will be one of excitement and opportunity in which ACC will play a role. There will be other faces at this table in the coming years. We envy the opportunities that lie before them.   Sincerely, C. Sam Walls Chief Executive Officer Arkansas Capital Corporation