2006 Business Forecast

The Twelfth Annual Business Forecast was held on Friday, January 27, 2006 at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale. The luncheon was a big success, attracting 1320 business professionals - our largest turn-out in the history of the Business Forecast. Thank you to all who attended.

The video of the 2006 Business Forecast is available online for viewing.
[ video presentation ]

The Panelists

Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty III is president of Kissinger McLarty Associates. He also serves as a senior adviser of the Carlyle Private Equity Group and as chairman of Randall and Dewey, a leading global energy industry advisory firm. In addition, he continues to lead the McLarty Companies and most recently formed the partnership, McLarty-Landers Automotive Group. He served former President Clinton as chief of staff, counselor to the President and special envoy for the Americas. An Arkansas native, he holds a bachelor's degree from the Walton College.

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Ellen Hughes-Cromwick is director and chief economist for the Ford Motor Company corporate economics group. She is responsible for global economic and automotive industry forecasts to support strategy, finance, and planning. She was a senior economist at Mellon Bank from 1990-96 and an assistant professor of economics at Trinity College in the late 1980s. She served as a staff economist on the President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. She received a bachelor's degree in government and French at the University of Notre Dame and a master's degree in international development and a Ph.D. in economics from Clark University in Massachusetts. She was recently appointed to the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Economic Advisers. She is a member of the National Association for Business Economics and the Conference of Business Economists.

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James E. Glassman is managing director and senior policy strategist with J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. He works closely with the firm's global treasury and capital markets groups and as an advisor for the firm's key corporate relations. He publishes independent research on the principal forces shaping global financial markets. His views are widely cited in the financial media where he is a frequent commentator on economic policy issues. From 1979 through 1999, he served in Research and Statistics and Monetary Affairs Divisions at the Federal Reserve Board. He joined Morgan Guaranty in 1988 and Chemical Bank in 1993, which through mergers with Chase Manhattan, J.P. Morgan and most recently Bank One. He holds a bachelor's from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.
 

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Jeff Collins served as director of the Walton College's Center for Business and Economic Research from 1999-2006. He oversaw applied economic research as part of the College's outreach mission. Recent studies have been conducted for the City of Fayetteville, Arvest Bank Group, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Further, Collins actively works with the economic development community of the state to build the Arkansas' capacity to create high-wage, high-skill employment. Currently, Collins is working with Accelerate Arkansas to benchmark the state's progress in building knowledge-based companies and employment. Collins has published in scholarly and applied journals, and he is regularly interviewed by national and local media. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Tennessee in 1996.