Annual Business & Industry Conference

Featured Speakers

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  Andy Jackson

  Bio

  Andy began his career in Employee Benefits in 1996 working at an independent insurance agency as a Life & Health Producer. In 2004, he and Ron Novak founded Group Benefits of Arkansas. Group Benefits of Arkansas merged with Gallagher Benefit Services in 2011 and Andy joined the GBS Oklahoma Branch in Oklahoma City.
  
  Andy's extensive experience with both fully insured and self-funded group benefit plans for large and small groups is constantly expanding and evolving and includes expertise with consumer-driven products, optional funding arrangements and voluntary benefits. Andy is our Area Health Care Reform Champion and has dedicated many hours to education related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its implications to our clients. He is extremely dedicated to helping clients develop an action plan to comply with the new regulations.
  Andy attended Westark Community College in Fort Smith and served honorably in the United States Marine Corp. He currently resides in Fort Smith, Arkansas with his wife Brooke and their three children, twins Grace and Evan and daughter Ivy, where they are involved in church and community.

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  Jeremy Horpedahl

  Bio

  Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl is the Director of ACRE and an associate professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas. He received his PhD in economics from George Mason University in 2009, concentrating in public choice, public finance, and economic history. His research has been published in Econ Journal Watch, Constitutional Political Economy, the Atlantic Economic Journal, Public Choice, and Public Finance and Management. Dr. Horpedahl has also published op-eds in a variety of regional and national publications. Prior to taking on the role of Director, Dr. Horpedahl has been a researcher with ACRE since joining the UCA faculty in 2015.

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  Andy Runyan

  Bio

  Andy Runyan is the Head of Cybersecurity Risk Services for UKON, a nationwide cyber and tech e&o wholesaler. Born and raised in Little Rock, Andy now consults IT companies across the country, helping their customers obtain the right cyber coverage to fit their exposure. He has specialized in cyber insurance for 7 years and has presented alongside the FBI cybercrimes department, CISA, and state officials. He and his wife Sarah, married for 20 years, live in Paragould, AR with their three children

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  Tracy Cooper

  Bio

  Tracy Cooper is a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner with over 30 years of experience helping businesses make sense of their numbers, systems, and processes. After early roles at Price Waterhouse and a long tenure as a senior executive at ALLTEL, where she led financial planning, fraud, credit, collections, and IT system implementations, she founded tlb services, a boutique consulting firm based in Little Rock.
  Today, she works with clients across industries to streamline operations, improve reporting, investigate fraud, and build smarter financial infrastructure. Tracy also develops and teaches continuing education courses for CPAs nationwide on accounting systems, fraud, and data tools like Excel and Power Query. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

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  Roby Brock

  Bio

  Roby Brock Is the CEO of Talk Business & Politics, a 23-year old multi-media news organization reporting on business and politics in Arkansas.
  
  Under Brock's direction, content is driven through many channels such as the Talk Business & Politics TV show, which airs Sunday mornings at 9:30 am on KATV Channel 7, 9:30 am on KAIT Channel 8, and 10:30 am on KFSM Channel 5 in Northwest Arkansas.
  
  Brock also moderates radio programs on NPR affiliates statewide and a daily digital newscast at TalkBusiness.net. In partnership with Hendrix College, Talk Business & Politics conducts statewide polling on political and business issues throughout the year.
  
  TB&P also reports through a subscription magazine, daily e-newsletters and web reports featuring state business profiles, industry developments and current political discussions. In September 2016, Talk Business & Politics acquired the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal and is expanding its coverage in this region of the state. In March 2018, Northeast Arkansas Talk Business & Politics, a free monthly newsprint product, was launched.

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  Tim Montgomery, CPA

  Bio

  Tim joined the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy as an investigator in 2013. He became Executive Director in May 2023. Tim graduated from the University of Houston – Downtown with a BBA in Accounting in 1992 and passed the CPA exam in 1993. Before joining the State Board, Tim spent most of his career in internal auditing, including Internal Audit Director for USAble Life and Dyersburg State Community College. He lives in Jacksonville, AR with his wife Charlotte. They have four children (ages 30, 29, 24, and 15), three daughters-in-law, and 2.6 perfect grandsons.