Meet Our Mentors
Bob Smith
High Tech manufacturing, international operations, mergers and acquisitions
Ray Crumbley
Ray is an expert in manufacturing, engineering and quality, product development, business operations, business planning. Also has experience with productivity consulting in food products, wood products, pulp & paper, plastics and minerals industries. He is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and also Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Steve Lucchi
Restaurant startup and operation, sales, computer information systems
Tim Zimmerman
Tim Zimmerman started his first business in the industrial rubber fabrication/distribution industry at the age of 23 with his wife and one other employee. His business acumen allowed him to hone his skills in sales, accounting, fabrication, distribution, customer service, and employee retention which helped him grow that business to over 160 employees in a 25 year span. He has a wide range of experience in the day to day running of a successful business and currently owns a small business in Little Rock, AR.
Rudy Woodward
Rudy is an Information Technology (IT) professional and Six Sigma Black Belt specializing in project management, information technology strategy, disaster recovery, change management, software implementations, business strategy and process improvement. He worked nine years at NASA Johnson Space Center in the International Space Station Program in the strategic operations directorate and was the sole IT liaison to international partner contacts in Russia, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Canada. He has managed several large software implementations, software upgrades, planned & executed disaster recovery, and data center moves for NASA and private industry companies. Some of the software implementations and upgrades: Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Microsoft CRM, and Ultimate Software’s UltiPro.
Rob Castleberry
Financial leader with 25+ years of hands on advanced experience in all aspects of financial planning (budgeting and forecasting) and analysis, stakeholder reporting, risk management, business valuations, M&A, Demonstrated leadership in ERP system implementations, project management, and Key Performance Indicators. Leadership in managing legal entity footprint for operational and tax savings, addition to establishing foreign legal entities. Sectors include Aerospace, Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Construction, Oil and Gas, Automotive, Distribution, among others.
Brian Kutsch
Brian’s professional background involves creating impactful and profitable programming. He is currently the conservation education curator at the Little Rock Zoo and is also active with groups focused on areas such as education, diversity and inclusion and business development. He serves on the board of the Arkansas STEM Coalition, the board of the Little Rock Regional Chamber’s (LRRC) young professionals program Create Little Rock, the LRRC Diversity and Inclusion Committee, as a member of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Rock Star program and on the planning committee for the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Sunday Soup Sunday fundraiser.