Green stepping down from XNA board after 27 years

HIGHFILL -- Stan Green, the longest serving member of the Northwest Arkansas National Airport Authority board of directors and one of the financial architects behind XNA's creation and continued growth, is stepping down after 27 years.

"He has been a vigilant watchman of the board since 1993. His service began long before soil was ever turned on the property to build what today has become the Northwest Arkansas National Airport," chairwoman Blake Woolsey said in announcing Green's decision to other board members. "Most organizations never have someone with such commitment, dedication and attention to its mission. It will truly be a changing of the guard for us."

Green, a 66-year-old businessman from Fayetteville, was first appointed to the board as one of Fayetteville's representatives and then as one of Washington County's board members. A replacement has not been named. Board members are not paid.

Green said he's not retiring from his other endeavors but felt the time was right to to step back from XNA and focus on other projects. Green is involved with commercial and energy-efficient real estate development. He is chairman of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.

"Over the last couple of years, I've gotten involved in some new things, more at the state level and less at the local level, and I've just kind of run out of time," Green said. "I'm not ready to retire from my business. I just needed to reallocate my time and the XNA thing is the thing I've been involved with the longest."

Green said new staff and board leadership is coming and the covid-19 situation is causing the airport to look at a different growth dynamic. With those changes, it seemed a good time for him to make some changes as well.

"It's been a privilege just to have been able to be a part of it for all these years. I look back on it with nothing but good memories," Green said. "I had no idea where it was going to go when I got on the board. I believed we'd get an airport, but I had no idea it would be as successful as it's been, and I really didn't even think about being involved in it for this long."

Expertise and leadership

He was appointed to the board in June 1993 by Fayetteville and started his first term as chairman in January 1995. He was instrumental in the financing of the airport and then the refinancing of its debts more than six times over the next 20 years.

Green helped lead the board in the design and construction of the airport, as well as its opening and the establishment of its operations and procedures. He went on to help plan and execute more than 20 expansion projects, including five of the terminal building, with the addition of the A Concourse being one of those largest projects.

"Without Stan, the Northwest Arkansas National Airport simply wouldn't exist," Alice Walton said. "I treasure my friendship with Stan and deeply appreciate his leadership through the years to make our vibrant community accessible to the world."

After 14 years serving as board chairman, Green led the board's effort to establish and refine the airport's financial modeling project, which allowed them to plan and implement expansion efforts.

"I would say that Stan, in terms of his long-term impact and his importance to the project, is right up there with Alice (Walton) and John Paul (Hammerschmidt) and Uvalde (Lindsey). He was particularly key on the financing, both the original bond issue and the subsequent ones," said Scott Van Laningham, the first CEO at the airport who retired Dec. 31, 2018. "That was his area of expertise. The other board members quickly realized that."

Hammerschmidt, who died in April 2015, represented Arkansas's 3rd District in Congress for 25 years and was ranking member of the Public Works (Transportation and Infrastructure) Committee. He was instrumental in getting XNA built.

Lindsey, former executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Council, called Green a guiding light, especially when they were trying to get the airport project off the ground. Lindsey and his wife, Carol, were the first employees of the council in 1990 and were "loaned" to the Airport Authority to get the project started. They didn't have titles or a staff. Green came on board three years later.

"He didn't steer us wrong; that was the big thing. In those days and times, you couldn't afford to make a mistake," Lindsey said. "It's one of those kind of deals that you just try to make sure that you're making the right decisions and the right moves. Stan was a good leader for us and part of the reason we were successful."

Green liked to read the fine print in financial agreements and usually caught things others didn't, which often led to making significant changes, Van Laningham said.

Art Morris, who came on a year after Green and represents Siloam Springs, said he has relied heavily on Green's expertise when making decision.

"Stan had a depth of knowledge of finance," Morris said. "I would call him our director of finance for many years. Of course, he was our treasurer and he usually gave the financial report at the airport board meetings. He was very well-prepared and had a great knowledge of what was going on."

Green organized the board's committee structure and was instrumental in the development and refinement of that system over the years. As board chairman, Green was able to keep a strong-willed group of business people pulling together, Van Laningham said.

"One of the things Stan was really good about was keeping the meeting moving, keeping it on point, making sure everybody had a chance," Van Laningham said. "If there was an issue to ask about, a question to raise or a point to make, they had that opportunity. But then, let's make a decision and move on to the next issue. That was key to keeping those folks involved in that process so we were able to keep people of that caliber on the board and that has continued."

Van Laningham said, in the early days, Green was a proponent of building only what was necessary while planning for expansion over time in a way the board could afford.

"People tend to forget that when we sold that original $79.5 million in bonds, we didn't have a contract with an airline, we didn't have a contract with a car rental company, we didn't have a contract with a hot dog vendor yet," Van Laningham said. "It was not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination."

Smart risk-taking

More recently, Green has pushed to do improvement projects at the airport.

"Stan has been one of the board members that said we're now at the point where we have the financial resources to do the concourse, to do the parking deck, let's go ahead and move forward on some of these improvement projects," Van Laningham said. "He pushed that."

Mike Johnson, who represents Fayetteville, said Green has brought a wealth of knowledge of finance and construction to the board and, just as important, knowledge of the region and its economy.

"He was not opposed to some smart risk-taking. Concourse A, he was very, very pro on getting that done, even in the middle of the Great Recession. That was a stroke of good fortune for the region and the airport," Johnson said. "We're dealing with some of those same opportunities right now, and I think Stan's going to be missed. His financial background and his strategic looking ahead and understanding the financial risks and the smartness of making timely investments is kind of a unique talent, and he definitely brought it to the table."

Philip Taldo, who represents Springdale, said he sees Green's contributions everywhere at XNA.

"Where Stan has really shown is in the operations and the continued growth of the airport over the last 15 years," Taldo said. "He's very versed in all the financial things that go into it; he's a CPA, and I think he's been invaluable in helping guide us through the growth and through the ups and downs and through a lot of expansion, rebuilding a runway, adding the new concourse."

Taldo said Green will be missed in ways lot of people may not understand. Maybe little things won't get caught or maybe things won't get pushed forward as fast as maybe they would have.

"If somebody gave me the job to go somewhere and build a greenfield airport, Stan Green is the first guy I would call and set up a meeting with," Taldo said. "He knows it from one end to the other. There's not very many people that have that knowledge and could direct you in the right direction from the ground on up."