The Decision Room

Brant Ward is President of Signature Bank of Arkansas, a community bank founded in Fayetteville in 2005. In that same year, he earned his MBA in Business Entrepreneurship and Finance from Walton College and joined the startup team at Signature.

Brant began his banking career as a Banking Trainee and worked his way through retail, lending, funding, finance, and administration before ultimately becoming COO then President. He has spent time on the Other Real Estate Owned (OREO) management team, and has managed the Bank’s liquidity, bond portfolio, internet deposits, and forecasting models and reports. He is engaged in the preparation of budgets, setting of deposit rates, management of the Asset/Liabilities, and development of new funding sources.

Brant is passionate about community banking and its role in growing and strengthening communities. He is also excited by the possibilities unlocked by FinTechs to partner with community banks to bring more and better services to consumers and small business owners. In addition to his MBA, Brant received a BAA in Business Management from Henderson State University and completed the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado. Brant is married with two sons, who keep him very busy as a coach for Fayetteville Youth Baseball and Boys and Girls Basketball teams.

Andrea Albright served as Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer, Walmart International, and Operating Partner for Massmart. In the growth role, she led a global team running Marketplace, Revenue and E-commerce for Walmart International. For sourcing, she led a highly talented team dedicated to delivering quality products at great prices to Walmart customers from around the world. For Massmart, she oversaw the Africa retail business, supporting 33,000 associates in their Omni-channel transformation journey.

Since joining the company in 2005, Andrea has managed and inspired associates, fostering environments built on trust and psychological safety — a proven model that encourages radical candor among members, accelerates collaboration and innovation, and results in less waste and more targeted use of resources.

In her previous roles, Andrea was instrumental in driving the growth and success of Walmart's U.S. Merchandising and People organizations, where she held positions of increasing responsibility and earned a well-deserved reputation as a dynamic and solutions-oriented leader. She has been recognized as an International Women's Forum fellow and has been named a rising woman in business by Fortune's Most Powerful Women Next Gen. Her success can be attributed to her customer-centric approach to strategy development, as well as her talent for building cognitively diverse and high performing teams.

Andrea holds dual master's degrees from the University of Arkansas, specializing in Business Administration (M.B.A.) and Human Resources Development (M.Ed.). Additionally, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Apparel and Textile Science from Kansas State University. Outside of her professional commitments, Andrea is actively involved in various boards and advisory roles. She serves on the Zero100 Advisory Board, the Walmart Foundation Board, the Baratta School for Global Business at Georgetown advisory board, the University of Arkansas MBA Alumni Board, and the Kansas State University College of Health and Human Services Board. Additionally, she served on the National Board for the Girl Scouts.

Kellen Frank is Executive Vice President, North America Retail at Circana. Kellen is the senior executive partner for retailers including Walmart Inc., Best Buy, Dollar General, Loblaw Companies Limited, and others across the club, value, general merchandise-specialty and technology-reseller channels.

Kellen's career bridges data, analytics, and retail technology — helping the world’s largest retailers and their brand partners turn complex consumer behavior into actionable growth strategies through demand measurement and demand acceleration. His teams are analysts, technologists, commercialization partners, problem solvers, relationship managers, and revenue-generating influencers.

Kellen has spent 20 years building and scaling client relationships, leading cross-functional teams of up to 90 people, and driving measurable business outcomes across the full retail ecosystem. Having operated with the scale and discipline of P&G, Kellen has helped build the standalone Duracell company with the decentralized & entrepreneurial model of Berkshire Hathaway. He has experienced the choicefulness required in a small, privately held company, and maintained a sharpened focus on what matters most in a private equity environment - revenue acceleration, organizational efficiency, and demonstrating the value markers that impact TSR.

Kellen has learned to ask the right questions, discern what should be done, galvanize organizations around a path forward, and bridge the gap between what’s possible and what’s commercially viable. He works at the leading edge of AI commercialization in data and analytics — partnering with internal technology teams to translate emerging AI capabilities into solutions retailers can adopt and the own teams can implement through targeted process change.

Kellen can lead in the complex and with high degrees of ambiguity. He has taken teams through multiple transformative change of control transitions including the Duracell divestiture from P&G to Berkshire Hathaway, the acquisition of NPD by Hellman & Friedman, and the subsequent merger of NPD and IRI to form Circana. Each transition deepened his ability to maintain client trust, organizational momentum, and commercial performance in fluid situations.

Brandi Joplin is a Board Director and former global Fortune 1 Divisional CFO who guides sustained growth, profitability, and competitive advantage for global private and public companies. Brandi serves on America’s Car-Mart, Southern Bancorp and ACE Hardware Corporation (ACE) Boards, chairing the Audit Committee for America’s Car-Mart and ACE. Brandi was the CFO of Walmart, Inc’s (NYSE: WMT) $93B subsidiary, Sam’s Club, partnered closely with the Walmart Board Audit Committee Chair as the company’s Chief Audit Executive, and served as a member of the Walmart Foundation Board of Directors’ Audit Committee.

As CFO of Sam’s Club, Brandi championed transformations and strategies across the business, impacting areas including supply chain, real estate, and business platforms. She led the early adoption of AI-driven forecasting setting new benchmarks for record growth and creating a replicable model for Walmart US. As Walmart, Inc.’s Chief Audit Executive, she influenced and streamlined global data governance, risk management, and internal controls, and oversaw the creation of the company’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance audit program. Brandi served as an Executive Advisor driving Walmart, Inc’s. overall cost transformation strategy. This included the identification of over $1B in cost savings as well as the design of the governance, culture and change management plans required to deliver and sustain the savings.

Dr. Brent D. Williams serves as the Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and holder of the Sam M. Walton Leadership Chair. With a deep commitment to fostering excellence in business education and thought leadership, Dr. Williams brings a wealth of experience to his role, shaping the future of the college and its impact on students and the business community.

A native Arkansan, Dr. Williams earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas, specializing in supply chain management.

Before assuming the deanship, Dr. Williams held key leadership roles at Walton College, including Senior Associate Dean, Associate Dean for Executive Education and Outreach and Chair of the Department of Supply Chain Management. Through these roles, he spearheaded initiatives that enhanced the college's reputation for innovation and industry engagement.

As the Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, Dr. Williams is focused on advancing the college toward its vision of being a catalyst for transforming the lives of its students and a thought leader in business.

Matthew A. Waller is dean emeritus of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and professor of supply chain management. His work as a professor, researcher, and consultant is synergistic, blending academic research with practical insights from industry experience. This continuous cycle of learning and application makes his work more effective, relevant, and impactful.

His goals include contributing to academia through high-quality research and publications, cultivating the next generation of professionals through excellent teaching, and creating value for the organizations he consults by optimizing their strategy and investments.

Dr. Adam Stoverink is the Executive Director of Walton MBA Programs and Associate Professor of Management in the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, an MBA from Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University, and a Bachelor of Science in Management from the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Stoverink's research examines phenomena related to leadership and high performance work teams. His work is published in a variety of journals, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Group & Organization Management, Human Resource Management Review, Human Resource Management Journal, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Organizational Dynamics. His work has also been featured in outlets such as Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Nasdaq.com, Strategy+Business, Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, and Business Digest. Dr. Stoverink currently sits on the Executive Committee of the Human Resources Division of the Academy of Management.

He teaches Leadership to graduate students and executive audiences in the Walton College. He is the recipient of the Wally Cordes Teaching Chair, the MBA Teacher of the Year Award, the Walton College Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, and he was named a Teaching Fellow and inducted into the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy. His team in the Walton MBA Programs office was awarded the Walton College Outstanding Team Achievement Award.

Dr. Stoverink is also the author of Unbreakable: Building and Leading Resilient Teams, published by Stanford University Press and named the #1 team leadership book read in 2023 by Forbes.

Blake Woolsey is the chief strategy and communications officer for the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Since the beginning of her career in public relations, she has dedicated herself to building relationships and enhancing the reputations of others. Whether it’s helping leaders rise to their potential, working with non-profits to raise capital or counseling businesses on how to elevate their brand, she has played an instrumental role in the success of those around her.

Prior to joining the Walton College, her 30-year career has included serving as Chief Communications and Development Officer for Heartland Forward, working as a consultant, holding the role of Executive Vice President at Mitchell Communications, a public relations agency, and serving as Senior Director of Development at the University of Arkansas. Blake is a sustaining member and former president of the Junior League of Northwest Arkansas, a member of the Delta Dental Foundation and serves in numerous other community service roles. She earned a B.A. from the University of Dallas, a private Catholic liberal arts university.