HOMETOWN | Brian was born in Blytheville, Arkansas, a small town located in the northeast part of the state; however, his heart is now in Edgemont, Arkansas with a little spot on Greer’s Ferry lake.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | For over 25 years, Brian has been involved in hotel and restaurant management and development. He has been an integral part in the hospitality community in Arkansas and other states by creating, developing and implementing strategies for hotel and restaurant brands and chains to increase profitability, customer service and deliver their brand promise. He has served in executive level management for the majority of his career for hotels, restaurants, event venues and other hospitality-related entities.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | Laptop, no office required!

FAVORITE QUOTE | “Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain

IF BRIAN WEREN’T SO GOOD AT HIS JOB, HE WOULD PROBABLY BE | Boat captain

FAVORITE TV SITCOM | The Ranch

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Pepperoni and sausage

HOMETOWN | Ashley hails from a small town in Iowa and although she’s been in Arkansas for over 10 years, she’s still a midwestern at heart. She still doesn’t understand why Arkansasans call “pop” “soda” or “shopping carts” “buggies” and says “you guys” instead of “ya’ll”, despite our best efforts of correcting her.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | Ashley has garnered quite a bit of professional event and administrative experience in her career thus far. Most notably working at an advertising and event planning and promotion agency for many years. Ashley joined the ARG team in 2014 and is a talented asset to the group. She was most recently promoted to Director of Client Services. Although Ashley’s duties are extremely varied, they include taking care of event campaign coordination aspects, registration forms and applications, databases, sponsorship and VIP logistics as well as budgets, financials, badges, signage and programs and a ton of the little conference details that all add up.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | Coffee, G2 pens, to do lists and did she mention coffee?!

FAVORITE QUOTE | “The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better.” – Barbara Pletcher

IF ASHLEY WEREN’T SO GOOD AT HER JOB, SHE WOULD PROBABLY BE | A teacher. She loves kids, crafts and any party with a theme!

FAVORITE TV SITCOM | The Office, One Tree Hill, Friends and Gilmore Girls

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Sausage, pepperonis and mushrooms (but saves the pepperonis for Ray Roy)

HOMETOWN | Diana was born and raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas but currently lives in the Capital City.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | Diana has a MBA and has been in the hospitality and tourism industry for over 20 years and brings to the group over 13 years of event management skills.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | My favorite ink pen

FAVORITE QUOTE | “It is what it is” – unknown

IF DIANA WEREN’T SO GOOD AT HER JOB, SHE WOULD PROBABLY BE | Very lost. She can’t imagine doing anything else.

FAVORITE TV SITCOM | Parks and Rec

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Anything except peppers!

HOMETOWN | Megan is originally from Silver City, New Mexico but has been a resident of Arkansas for over 15 years.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | Megan has a bachelors degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Northern Arizona University. She brings to the group extensive experience in hotel, faculty and event management from both the sales side and operations perspective.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | 12-month wall calendar

FAVORITE QUOTE | “Work smarter, not harder” – unknown

IF MEGAN WEREN’T SO GOOD AT HER JOB, SHE WOULD PROBABLY BE | Living in a cabin in the woods.

FAVORITE TV SITCOM | The Office

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Mushroom

HOMETOWN | Originally from St. Louis, MO (Go Cardinals!), Kat has resided in Little Rock for over 12 years before moving to Oregon in 2019.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | Kat joined the Group in October 2010 and hasn’t looked back since! She brings extensive IT, website development and design experience to the group. She’s our pro at creating web-based solutions for clients and conferences and serves as our mainframe for the IT aspect of our group.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | The internet (wait, that’s an office supply, right?)

FAVORITE QUOTE | “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

IF KAT WEREN’T SO GOOD AT HER JOB, SHE WOULD PROBABLY BE | A librarian or bookstore owner. Or perhaps just on a beach somewhere with copious amounts of books to read!

FAVORITE TV SITCOM | Modern Family, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Rec

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Veggie all day, minus olives of any kind

HOMETOWN | Heather grew up in a tiny town called Garner, Arkansas. Given the small and connected hometown feel of only being surrounded by 250 people, this could be considered challenging to some, but she wouldn’t have dreamed of being raised anywhere else.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | After leaving Garner, AR in 2005, she relocated to Gulfport, MS to take on a management and hospitality position at the local casino. She was responsible for a variety of tasks, including training employees, setting policies and gaming rules, observing the casino floor and customer relations. In 2010, Heather joined the group where she now uses her skills to play various roles, including administrative and convention-planning support that of which helps the business keep their feet on the ground.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | To do lists and coffee

FAVORITE QUOTE | “Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen.“ – unknown

IF HEATHER WEREN’T SO GOOD AT HER JOB, SHE WOULD PROBABLY BE | A professional organizer

FAVORITE TV SITCOM | Friends

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Anything except anchovies and pineapples

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | Bud was promoted to Office Manager in 2018 and takes the lead on making sure Ray Roy doesn’t get too many dog treats, which is a hard day’s work. Bud is typically the quietest member of our group, but will not shy away from letting us know when he’s ready to go on a long walk, regardless of the weather conditions.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | His cozy dog bed and dog treats Ray Roy was saving for later

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Pizza is pizza

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND | Ray Roy serves as the group’s Chief Paw Officer and is always making sure the ARG team is staying busy. Ray Roy is also responsible for making sure that any new visitor never goes unannounced or unnoticed. When Ray Roy isn’t busy keeping the team in line, he’s begging for more dog treats or stretched out on Ashley’s desk for a quiet nap.

OFFICE SUPPLY MUST HAVE | Dog treats

PIZZA OF CHOICE | Pepperonis from Ashley’s pizza