Ross M. Whipple: Arkansas Business Hall of Fame

Ross M. Whipple is president and CEO of Horizon Capital Partners, LLLP and president of Horizon Timber Services, Inc. He also serves as chairman for The Ross Foundation Board of Trustees.

Whipple was born in 1951 in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In 1973, he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and economics from Henderson State University and an MBA at the University of Arkansas in 1976 and returned home to work in the family timber business. In1979, Whipple joined Merchants and Planters Bank of Arkadelphia and led mergers and acquisitions to create Horizon Bancorp, Inc., which was sold for 3.25 times book value and 24 times earnings. In 2000, he started Summit Bancorp, Inc., growing it to $1.2 billion in assets before a sale to Bank of the Ozarks, Inc. Today, his focus is land and timber through his family partnership, Horizon Capital Partners, LLLP, expanding holdings from 500 acres to about 70,000 acres, and his work with The Ross Foundation, where holdings have expanded from 16,000 acres to about 64,000 acres.

Through The Ross Foundation, Whipple created Arkadelphia Promise to assist students with college tuition. He served on the boards of Arkansas Community Foundation, Henderson State University Foundation, Southeastern Council of Foundations, Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Forestry Association, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis/Little Rock Division, Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, UAMS Foundation and Henderson State University. In 2003, he was named Executive of the Year by Arkansas Business, and inducted into the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame in 2017.

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