Trucking association
names new chairman
Butch Rice, president and chief executive officer of Stallion Transportation Group in Beebe, has been named chairman of the Arkansas Trucking Association.
Rice replaces Craig Harper, chief operating officer of J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. Other association officers include Chairman-elect Al Heringer IV, vice president of Star Transportation; Vice Chairman Dan Cushman, president of P.A.M. Transportation Services; state Vice President Tim Thorne, president and CEO of ABF Freight; Secretary Mike McNutt, CEO of Distribution Solutions; and Treasurer Vicki Jones Stephens, owner of C.C. Jones Inc.
Rice briefly addressed Arkansas Trucking Association members during the second day of its business conference in Hot Springs and said he wanted the association to "realize the importance of our drivers."
"Our drivers are the most important part of our company," Rice said. "We know that when we hand the keys to those drivers, they're the CEO of your corporations whether you like it or not."
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Bear State discloses
executives' earnings
Chris Wewers, the former president and chief executive officer for Bear State Financial, earned more than $267,600 last year, the Little Rock-based bank said in its proxy statement.
Wewers was replaced by Richard Massey as acting president and acting CEO for the bank last year. Massey, who is also chairman of the bank and its largest shareholder, did not receive any pay last year.
Other top executives for Bear State were J. Matthew Machen, chief financial officer, who earned more than $242,500 in 2014; and R. Thomas Fritsche Jr., executive vice president, who earned almost $256,000 last year.
Bear State will hold its annual meeting in Harrison on May 29.
-- David Smith
Windstream surges
as state index falls
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 4.43 to 389.59 on Thursday.
"U.S. stocks fell on Thursday after lackluster earnings reports weighed on stocks and a report from The Wall Street Journal said supplies of the Apple Watch were limited after a key component was found defective," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Shares of Windstream jumped 6.3 percent on average volume.
USA Truck lost 6 percent in light trading.
Total volume of the index was 29.8 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 05/01/2015