Thursday, May 23, 2013
Former Bush aide hired by Wal-Mart
BENTONVILLE - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday that Dan Bartlett, who counseled former President George W. Bush and worked on both his presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, will start as the retailer’s new executive vice president of corporate affairs late next month.
Bartlett, 41, was most recently president and chief executive officer of the U.S. office of Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a global public relations firm.
Bartlett will report to President and CEO Mike Duke and will oversee external communications, government relations and sustainability and the Walmart Foundation.
In the Bush administration, Bartlett oversaw the White House press office and the offices of communications, media affairs and speech writing and global communications.
4 state businesses earn trade awards
Four Arkansas businesses were presented the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Global Trade on Wednesday at the Governor’s Mansion.
Tyson Foods of Springdale won the agribusiness division. Conway Machine Inc. received the award for small manufacturer exporter. Alliance Rubber Co. of Hot Springs won the medium manufacturer exporter award. And Welspun Tubular of Little Rock was selected as the top larger manufacturer exporter.
The winners were selected based on such factors as most recent percentage of export sales to total sales, growth of export sales for the past three years, the company’s goals and commitments internationally and the number of jobs saved or created because of the company’s export performance.
The program is sponsored by the Arkansas District Export Council, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, U.S.
Commercial Service, and the Arkansas World Trade Center.
Index sheds 2.86 to close at 284.95
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 2.86 to 284.95 Wednesday.
But during the day, the index reached its eighth straight all-time high of 289.95.
“U.S. stocks reversed course after trading higher in the morning to finish lower after the Fed Minutes indicated the Federal Reserve may begin tapering [quantitative easing] as early as June,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 27 on 05/23/2013