Arkansas Rural Sourcing, Inc.

News

ASU facility, tech center look to create jobs

By Larry Fugate
Jonesboro Sun
September 12, 2004

The opening of the Arkansas State University Biosciences Institute later this month may mean a new direction for industrial recruitment for Jonesboro.

That center and Arkansas Rural Sourcing, 5501 Kreuger Drive, which works to develop job opportunities in information technology for rural communities, may fuel the change in direction.

Industrial recruiters have been successful in attracting food processing companies to Jonesboro, including Frito-Lay, Nestle, Kraft Foods’ Post Cereal plant and ConAgra Foods.

“We are not abandoning the food industry,” stressed John Freeman, chairman of the board of the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve found a niche, but we are not saturated.”

Existing industries have made major contributions to the community, said Henry Jones III, president of the local chamber. During the last year, he added, existing industries have made more than $76.5 million in capital improvements and expansions and added 1,100 jobs.

“We are looking at where we are and where we need to go,” said Ed Way, chairman of Jonesboro Unlimited.

Sherry Stringer, president of the Jonesboro Industrial Development Corp. and East Arkansas Development Council, said the information technology sector could bring high-paying jobs to Jonesboro.

“We have many ASU students obtaining IT degrees and no place here for them to work,” Stringer said recently during a roundtable discussion at the chamber office.

“I don’t know if we will ever have a Dell Computer here, but you never know,” she added.

Expanding the base

Freeman said he hopes Jonesboro can develop jobs to retain more ASU engineering and IT graduates.

“Basically, we are exploring how we can expand our base,” Freeman said. “We don’t want to be shortsighted and not have a game plan.”

The ASU Biosciences Institute and Arkansas Rural Sourcing “mean a whole new ball game,” Jones added.

He said that many companies want to be near research centers, and the potential for spin-off companies is great.

Development of the “Marion supersite” for the automobile industry could result in spin-off businesses locating in Jonesboro, he said.

While Haworth Jonesboro Systems Products announced in mid-July that it will cease operations and leave the community in December, several companies have expressed an interest in the 585,000-square-foot facility at 1 Haworth Drive, off the Joe N. Martin Expressway (U.S. 63), Jones said.

The plant’s closure will mean approximately 230 employees will lose jobs.

One of the firms expressing an interest in the 6-year-old plant is a food processor.

Jones said five manufacturers also have expressed interest in Jonesboro, and all are “viable” candidates. The potential for employment ranges from 25-40 employees for one, to 400-450 for another.

Industrial growth

In addition to the candidates for new development, Jones said several existing industries may expand.

Both the old Lincoln and Dana plants, shuttered when production lines were moved, have been sold and have the potential for new development, Jones noted.

Jonesboro has a number of assets, including a trained workforce with a good work ethic plus solid transportation links that are being improved almost daily, Jones said.

He said the city’s industrial parks have the infrastructure and land to fit the needs of most potential employers:

• The Craighead Technology Park off East Highland includes 1,426 acres available for development,
with tracts as large as 200 acres.
• The Jonesboro Industrial Park on Highland has 635 acres available, with tracts as large as 50 acres.
• Freeway Fiber Park off East Parker Road includes 160 acres, with one 80-acre block.

Industrial recruiters may use some quotes made at a Jonesboro Unlimited luncheon in late August when officials at Frito-Lay, 2810 Quality Way, announced the company will seek to issue a series of revenue bonds to cover future expansion and introduce a new tortilla chip line.

“There is no question Jonesboro has been a great addition to our operations,” said Al Gordon, vice president of operations for Frito-Lay’s Central Gulf Region. “We still have 100 of the first 125 people we hired to work at the plant. That says a lot about the workforce here.”

Frito-Lay employs 575 people here.

Jonesboro has been successful in industrial recruitment because of a friendly local business climate, progressive tax structure, state-level work force training initiatives and a proactive, cooperative community spirit, Gordon said.

He repeatedly cited “workforce effectiveness,” the plant’s proximity to its market and transportation links as the reasons behind Frito-Lay’s planned expansion, adding the company plans to tap ASU’s engineering and business management graduates.

“Everything we have has proved to be an asset,” Freeman said. “We can’t forget the impact agriculture plays on Northeast Arkansas.

Magnolia Business Park

Road puts site on path to new jobs

By MIKE McNEILL, Managing Editor

The pieces are finally falling into place for the Magnolia Business Park.

Work has begun on a half mile roadway within the site north of U.S. 82. With the road comes the water and sewer service to support future business development inside the park.

Expected soon is almost $1.9 million to create a "career center," an 18,860-square-foot building for job training and support of the growing "offsite" work movement. The Magnolia Economic Development Corporation is taking the lead in the project.

Also, the Coordinating and Development Corporation of Shreveport, La., plans construction of a business incubator, office space and 30,000 square feet of light industrial "spec" buildings on a 15-acre site it will develop.

The first business tenant of the park will be a regional cleaning supply distribution center for At Your Service of Magnolia. Construction is expected to start once the new roadway is completed.

Together, the projects will change a few hundred acres of cleared land and a short road into a place where dozens of people will go to work every day, and many more will receive training for the jobs employers have.

Mike Juniker, executive director of the Magnolia Economic Development Corporation, said work on the road should be done in about 60 days. About $500,000 in funding comes directly from the MEDC, which is supported by a local sales tax. An additional $170,000 comes from a state-federal Community Development Block Grant, justified by the At Your Service warehouse.

Juniker hopes that the federal Economic Development Administration will approve funding for the career center by the end of October. Once that happens, the project will be sent out for construction bids, with work to start next year.

Architectural plans for the career center are in hand. It will have classrooms, a break room, restrooms and office.

Juniker explains the different functions areas of the career center by working his way through a floor plan.

"It will have four classrooms," Juniker said, pointing at one. "This will be the book, paper and pencil area. Let’s say you want to become a carpenter. This is where you would learn to read a tape measure. This is what you’re going to need before we let you let you loose with a hammer."

Classes are anticipated for high school juniors and seniors — one of the three groups the career center hopes to serve. The other groups are recent college graduates, and workers who need to upgrade their skills.

"The high school student in his junior or senior year, who is not going to college, wants to learn a sellable skill before graduation — something more than using a computer or playing games on the Xbox. The curriculum will be based on what our employers are going to be needing. Like right now, I’ve got a horrible need for welders. We’ll be able to handle that," Juniker said.

Another classroom will be reserved for adults who want to improve their skills or learn a new one. "There will be classes based on Company X needs. They can take courses, both during the day or at night. We will do that in coordination with WAGE and Adult Education," Juniker said, referring to the Magnolia-Columbia County Adult Education Center and the local board of the Workforce Alliance for Growth in the Economy — an organization that seeks to educate workers about skills needed in today’s job market.

One large area will have a concrete floor and a roll-up door "so we can bring in heavy equipment and supplies, and have double-doors wide enough for pallet jacks or forklifts. These areas are going to be utilized by the students for the hammering, sawing, welding — the actual hands on training and certification," Juniker said.

The MEDC, working with Columbia County industries, found that many need a space to train new employees, or for training current employees on new equipment.

"Let’s say Company X is putting in a new piece of equipment. They will bring that piece of equipment in here.

They will run their employees through training on that piece of equipment. Instead of being out on the plant floor, they will be in heated or cooled environment, with a classroom if they need it.

They will be responsible for bringing equipment in, paying the instructor and paying employees. We’ve already got that worked out with the manufacturers," Juniker said.

Another part of the career center will be the Magnolia office of Arkansas Rural Sourcing, Inc. Arkansas Rural Sourcing is the brainchild of former Cardinal Health Inc. executive Kathy Brittain White. Cardinal Health has worked with Southern Arkansas University to create a "virtual internship" program, in which SAU students work for the company via computer. Arkansas Rural Sourcing takes the concept one step further to bring high technology jobs to rural areas of the state.

"Arkansas Rural Sourcing will only hire college graduates, and they will be permanent, full-time employees.

They will be doing the types of work that the virtual internship program has been doing — program design, computer design, program evaluation, troubleshooting — things like that," Juniker said. Put another way — they’re exactly the types of jobs that many American corporations are "outsourcing" to other nations.

Arkansas Rural Sourcing will have its own building entrance, conference room with videoconferencing capability, break room, manager’s office and a "big room for a telephone server," Juniker said. He expects that the operation will run around the clock.

The MEDC will own the land and the building, which will be leased to Southern Arkansas University. SAU will be responsible for insurance, maintenance and utilities.

SAU Tech will be responsible for instruction and staffing, and day-to-day operations at the career center.

The Coordinating and Development Corporation has an agreement with the MEDC to develop a "business incubator" in the business park.

"The purpose of a business incubator is to provide a nurturing environment for new businesses, or start-up businesses," Juniker said.

"You have a place where the company, or individual, gets below-market rent. That automatically poses a problem.

What about all these real estate agents that have space for lease or rent? I involved a couple of them on the front end. These people that are going into the incubator can’t afford the market rates for lease space. The real estate agent is losing out on it, but they weren’t going to get it in the first place because (new businesses) couldn’t afford it.

Maybe after five years, when this guy graduates, he will be in a position to rent or lease office space.

"When a company leaves your incubator, you want them to be a successful company not only in manufacturing and selling their products or whatever they’re doing, but also how to keep their books, know how to pay their bills, know how to reconcile their checking account, how to do a marketing plan, how to go about advertising," Juniker said.

The business incubator will provide a receptionist, secretarial and bookkeeping assistance. A fax machine and copier will be provided. This means that a new small business "can concentrate on manufacturing their product or distributing it."

"A long with all of this, the business owners will go to training," Juniker said. The SAU Small Business Development Center will teach new business people how to reconcile checking accounts, how to read a profit and loss statement, and how to create a marketing plan.

"If you don’t go to training, and you miss enough of it, you’re out. We’re here to make small businesses successful," Juniker said.

Juniker is confident about the demand for a business incubator.

"At least once a month I have somebody in here saying, ‘I want to start a business, and this is what I want to do, and I can’t do it any longer in my garage.’ There’s enough people out there who have an idea, or in fact are in business, who need that space to grow," he said.

Businesses will see the fees they’re assessed for their space and incubator services rise. "By the time they get to that fifth year, they’re paying more to stay in the incubator than they would if they were out. The incubator is not intended to be in competition with the local real estate agents and local owners or with the private sector, because that’s not right. Give us this guy for five years. If we’re doing it right and we’re doing what we say we’re going to do, Mr. Building Owner, in five years he’s going to come knocking on your door and say, ‘I need space, and I can afford to pay whatever the going rate is."

The Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District may even get into the business park. While stressing that its plans are only in the discussion stage, SWAPDD executive director Terry Sherwood wants to move its office from Bessie Street to the business park.

Former Corporate Exec Promotes Rural Outsourcing
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

By Wesley Brown
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK – A former chief information officer at a Fortune 500 company told Rotary Club members here Tuesday that not only are U.S. manufacturing jobs moving overseas, but so is technology-related work.

Kathy Brittain White, former CIO of Cardinal Health Inc., said that if something is not done soon to stop the flow of IT jobs overseas, the results will be devastating.

“If something is not done in 10 years, every technology job (in the U.S.) will be overseas,” said White, who was named to Forbes magazine’s Top 25 America’s Businesswomen in 2001. “That is a scary concept.”

According to the International Data Corp., the global market for outsourcing will grow at an annual rate of 7 percent to hit $1.2 trillion by 2007.

Relocating work from Europe and the United States to countries such as India and Pakistan is cutting costs for global firms by up to 40 percent, the study showed.

Another study by Deloitte Research in 2003 indicated that the world’s 100 largest financial services companies expect to transfer an estimated $356 billion of their operations and two million jobs offshore over the next five years in efforts to significantly reduce costs.

The survey found that each of the 100 financial institutions expects to reduce costs by an average $1.4 billion by 2008 by sending work to low-cost centers like India from the developed economies in North America, Europe, and Asia.

White, an alumni of Arkansas State University, recently created a new company in Jonesboro called Rural Sourcing Inc., which is working to attract companies seeking IT consulting work to rural communities.

A nonprofit arm of the company is working with ASU and Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia to train students at those colleges for technology-related careers.

The for-profit part of the corporation is now actively seeking to bring some of those jobs back to rural communities in the U.S., White said.

She added that the company has already started negotiations with companies in Chicago and Hawaii. Currently, it has 12 employees at its corporate office in Jonesboro.

“We can’t continue to have the brain drain,” White said. “We educate our people. They have nowhere to work and they leave the state.”

“That is how we are going to win, by bringing IT jobs en masse to Arkansas,” said White, who donated a $2 million gift to ASU’s College of Business to establish the Horizon Institute of Technology two years ago.

Rural Sourcing, Inc. Incorporates to Bring Technology Employment to Arkansas

Goal is to secure multiple clients creating a substantial number of jobs in rural Arkansas areas by December 2004

February 20, 2003 Jonesboro, Arkansas

“Rural Sourcing, Inc. (RSI) is a non-profit organization that was created as a result of a statewide initiative to bring economic expansion and high technology employment opportunities to Arkansas while supporting workforce diversity,” says ARS president and chairman of the board, Kathy Brittain White. According to White, many talented graduates of programs such as information technology, computer engineering, and computer science from around the state must leave the area to obtain desirable employment. “With the best and the brightest leaving, rural areas are left to their eventual, imminent decline. At the same time, metropolitan areas are becoming over-crowded resulting in scarce housing and a strained service infrastructure,” said White.

Numerous universities, technical programs, and community colleges around the state are actively partnering and collaborating with Arkansas Rural Sourcing to produce highly qualified technology employees that will have the opportunity for meaningful employment, regardless of their address.

RSI has appointed Henry Torres as director of the organization. Mr. Torres explains that by using the global outsourcing model that has shown employees can produce high-quality work remotely, RSI offers a talented technology employee population at a very competitive cost. A recent survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting in New York confirms the low cost of doing business in Little Rock, Arkansas—more than 30% below a metropolitan area such as San Francisco, California. Operating expenses can be even further reduced when employees are located in Arkansas’ rural areas. Additionally, there is a much lower organizational risk factor when doing business domestically in similar legal and social environments. “The compelling benefits to companies outsourcing information technology jobs offshore exist in Arkansas,” according to Atul Vashistha, founder and chief executive officer of neoIT, Incorporated and Arkansas Rural Sourcing board member.

“Our model of ‘best sourcing’ - high quality, cost competitive, low risk - combined with the stated objective of supporting economic expansion and workforce diversity make ARS the best domestic sourcing option,” said Torres.

RSI operates on a multi-tiered approach to technology consisting of various service channels commissioned to provide sustainable improvement in the rural economic community. Each channel can be customized and is scalable to meet the needs of our clients and constituents. ARS has designed these channels to be replicable by the use of proven industry techniques coupled with the ARS Technology Transfer Model. The organization is funded by both public and private sources and led by a seven member board of directors who represent industry, education, and economic development leaders.

As we move ever closer to a global community, Rural Sourcing, Inc. envisions rural communities in which

• Individuals can achieve economic independence by working in jobs related to their field that pay livable wages and provide opportunities for growth, training, and advancement.

• Information technology and computer science program graduates have the option to live in the area of their choice and have high technology employment opportunities.

• Local economies are fully assimilated into the global economy through creative and collaborative uses of technology.

• Professionals choosing to return to rural settings where the quality of life is consistently rated as excellent and desirable have the opportunity for meaningful employment.

“Strong local leadership and innovative partnerships with national leaders in industry will allow rural communities to charter their own global future as participants in a world-wide economy,” adds White.

To learn more about rsi you may visit www.ruralsource.org or contact Kathy Brittain White, president and chairman of the board, at whitekathyb@nc.rr.com, or Henry Torres, Director at htorres@ruralsource.org or call 870-910-8184.

Mattel chief speaks at A-State

Story Date: 3/19/2004 11:50:45 PM

By Anthony Childress

Information technology is key to educational and professional success for students in places like Northeast Arkansas, the chairman and chief executive officer of Mattel Inc. said Friday morning.

Robert Eckert and other officials with the world's largest toy manufacturer flew to Jonesboro to speak at the Arkansas State University Fowler Center as part of the second annual Executive Speaker Series.

Eckert, a Missouri native, said he came in part to support the school's role in creating the Horizon Institute of Technology, which focuses on support of education, information technology employment and economic expansion.

"There is no question information technology has made an impact on our industry. We have a strong presence on the Internet through Web sites pertaining to our products," Eckert said.

Mattel, headquartered in suburban Los Angeles, owns Scrabble, Uno, Fisher Price, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Matchbox and Tyco RC -- a toy car maker which is unaffiliated with Tyco, the Bermuda-based manufacturing company whose former CEO is accused of corporate looting.

Mattel employs 25,000 people in 36 countries. The company licenses entertainment through companies like Disney, Warner Bros. and Viacom's Nickelodeon for products which include Harry Potter, Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh and Superman.

Eckert said the emergence of online sites devoted to Mattel brand-name toys have enjoyed unimagined success. And he attributed a large share of it to having trained professionals who specialize in dispensing information through technological training.

Horizon was founded in 2002 by Kathy Brittain White, president and chairman of the board for Arkansas Rural Sourcing Inc. It works as a nonprofit organization charged with developing information technology job opportunities in rural communities.

"What we're all about is connecting young people with employment in the IT field through outreach initiatives in the Arkansas Delta," White said.

The institute provides a virtual internship program at ASU, Southern Arkansas University in Camden and the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

"These programs allow students to work with Fortune 500 companies on business projects as part-time paid employees without leaving campus," White explained. "The program at SAU won a top national award recognizing the unique and creative characteristics of the partnerships."

To this point, more than 100 students from all three schools have participated in the effort.

A new business technology center is slated to open in Jonesboro at ASU this fall using partial funding from Horizon and the university. White said it would set up a technology infrastructure and bolster training and employment options, keeping rural areas and smaller urban centers from continuing "brain drain."

Eckert said it was important to understand what information technology brings to the table in terms of offering people a chance to be trained, educated and hired to fill technology-driven jobs close to home.

"Technology is clearly driving our business and has a very bright future," Eckert said. "I'm proud to be here today to talk about having a mechanism in place like Arkansas Rural Sourcing for keeping technology jobs (at) home or creating new ones at home."

To that end, he said efforts to set up technology networking for young people and others in the state were smart moves.

"The support of the Horizon Institute means a great deal because it's about kids and giving them the tools to look at IT as a career choice," Eckert said.

Dr. Kathy Brittain White Enhances Technology Outreach at Arkansas State University with a $2 Million Gift

Arkansas State University alumna Dr. Kathy Brittain White will present the ASU College of Business with a $2 million gift to establish the Horizon Institute of Technology.

The gift will enable the College of Business to be the catalyst in bringing technology and advancement to the students and residents of the Arkansas Delta, according to Mark Young, director of the Institute.

The Horizon Institute of Technology will expand technology education at the university in both undergraduates and graduate programs. It will also provide additional technology education opportunities for secondary education teachers who are laying the foundation for students who represent the future workforce.

Business and industry will also benefit from the Horizon Institute of Technology. The Institute will focus on providing solutions and increasing productivity.

"Arkansas State University is in a unique position here in the Delta," White said. "The university will make a tremendous difference in the lives of students and residents by bridging the digital divide through this outreach program."

Dr. Jan Duggar, dean of the College of Business, said, "What makes this gift unique is that Dr. White is not only giving a monetary gift but is also giving a gift of her time and expertise. Dr. White will continue to provide vision by serving on and chairing the Board of Directors of the Horizon Institute of Technology."

White received her bachelor's degree from ASU in 1977. She continues to support the university through this endeavor, and past support includes the establishment of the Virtual Internship Program with Cardinal Healthcare, the Kathy Brittain White Fellowship in Management Information Systems, and the White Computer Lab at ASU-Mountain Home.

In making this gift to ASU, White says she has had an opportunity to reflect on her time spent as an undergraduate at Arkansas State University. "ASU was an incredibly supportive environment for me, both financially and through the faculty" she said.

"The faculty's personal involvement and encouragement gave me a vision of more; that I could go to graduate school and pursue my career goals."

That vision of doing more is consistent with White's vision of the Horizon Institute. White expects the Horizon Institute of Technology to challenge and inspire people to believe they are capable of more than they think. "One person believing that they are capable of more can change everything. I want to make a difference one life at a time."

White is executive vice president and chief information officer for Cardinal Health, a company currently ranked 23rd on the Fortune 500 list. The long-time advocate for advancement in technology serves on the Boards of Directors for Mattel, Inc., and Certegy, Inc. She was named to Forbes magazine's Top 25 America's Businesswomen 2001 list and was also named one of the top CIOs in the United States by Information Week magazine in 1997.

Mattel looking to build in educational toys.

18 March 2004

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 18 (Reuters) - The head of Mattel Inc. (MAT.N) said on Thursday the No. 1 toymaker is looking to educational toys to help its bottom line, and for Barbie dolls to perform well in a competitive market.

"The toy business is fairly mature in the U.S. It grows modestly. But within the toy business over the last four or five year, an area with expansive growth has been educational toys," Mattel's Chief Executive Robert Eckert said in an interview.

In February of this year, El Segundo, California-based Mattel's Fisher-Price division said it will roll out its biggest line yet of educational toys and Eckert said the toys will be aimed at categories such as infants, babies, preschool youths and early readers.

Eckert said the company is looking for good results in the electronic learning area of toys and will try to build market share there, as well as in other platforms for educational toys.

With sales of about $2.8 billion a year, according to Port Washington, New York marketing information group NPD, educational toys account for about 15 percent of the overall toy business.

For the fourth quarter, worldwide gross sales for the Mattel brands unit grew 2 percent to $1.07 billion, but Barbie brand sales slid 5 percent, and 25 percent domestically.

"We've had more competition in the doll business than we've had in several years," Eckert said. "Barbie is going to do fine."

Mattel is modernizing Barbie for 2004 by piercing her ears, giving her trendy clothing like Ugg boots, and hiring some new people to manage the brand.

Eckert said that Barbie fans can give their opinion on a pressing topic for lovers of the toy icon. They will be given a chance to vote online to see if Barbie will get back together with her long-time, plastic pal Ken.

Kathy Brittain White to Speak at Girls of Promise Conference

LITTLE ROCK, AR: Dr. Kathy Brittain White, founder of the Horizon Institute of Technology, will be the keynote speaker at Arkansas State University’s first Girls of Promise Conference, to be held at the ASU Convocation Center on Saturday, April 17.

The conference is one of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas’ key programs, and is made possible through grant from ASU’s Horizon Institute of Technology. Additional sponsors this year are Wal Mart, Morgan Stanley, SCB, East-Harding, and the design center of Little Rock.

The Girls of Promise Conference has been held for the past five years on the UALR campus and has hosted more than 770 girls since 2000. This year the conference is being expanded to include Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, and Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. The addition of two more sites will allow an additional 100 girls to participate this year, for a total of 260 at the three locations. The conference’s extension to two more campuses is made possible through grants from Dr. Kathy Brittain White and Arkansas State’s Horizon Institute of Technology.

This annual spring event helps 8th grade girls explore careers in fields related to math, science, and technology and provides them with information about required high school courses in these areas. The conference also gives them the opportunity to meet with and hear presentations by women scientists, physicians, computer systems engineers, and others from various organizations and businesses in Arkansas. Teachers travel with the girls to the conference, and also spend the day in workshops with respected math, science, and technology educators and counselors and receive continuing education credit. Parents who register girls are also welcome to attend the sessions.

This free, day-long conference is always a popular event and participants come from every corner of the state. Girls who have shown promise in math, science and technology may participate if recommended by their teachers or parents. Anyone wishing to register a girl for the conference should contact the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas office at 501-244-9740.

ASU grad sees rural Arkansas as corporate outsourcing post
Friday, Mar 19, 2004

By Wesley Brown
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - Many people are now recognizing the efforts of the University of Arkansas' Genesis Technology Incubator to diversify the state's technology and economic base, but not many are aware of similar efforts in the other corner of state.

Kathy Brittain White, former chief information officer at Cardinal Health Inc., believes that bringing technology to the students and residents of the Arkansas Delta is one way to help the region economically and educationally.

White put her money where her mouth was nearly two years ago when she gave Arkansas State University's College of Business in Jonesboro a $2 million gift to establish the Horizon Institute of Technology.

The institute's mission is to expand technology education at the university in both undergraduate and graduate programs.

"Arkansas State University is in a unique position here in the Delta," White said when the think tank was unveiled in September 2002. "(ASU) will make a tremendous difference in the lives of students and residents by bridging the digital divide through this outreach program."

Already, the institute has started "virtual internship" programs at three Delta colleges: ASU, Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia, and the University of Arkansas at Monticello. That program allows students to work on business projects part-time without leaving their campuses.

The institute also works with secondary education teachers who provide their students with technology-related curriculums.

"One person believing that they are capable of more can change everything," White said.

The former Fortune 500 executive is also the driving force behind a recently announced statewide effort to keep top technology minds at home.

Last month, Arkansas Rural Sourcing Inc. was created to bring economic expansion and hi-tech jobs to often overlooked areas of the state, similar to what the Genesis program is doing in Northwest Arkansas.

The seven-person board that oversees the nonprofit group includes corporate executives and leading Arkansas educators, including University of Arkansas President B. Alan Sugg and SAU President and economist David Rankin.

According to White, many talented Arkansas graduates of programs such as information technology, computer engineering and computer science must leave the state to find good-paying jobs.

"With the best and the brightest leaving, rural areas are left to their eventual, imminent decline," said White, who sits on the corporate boards of Mattel Inc. and Certegy Inc.

And that represents a double whammy against Arkansas and especially the Delta, which has seen thousands of blue-collar jobs transferred overseas.

At the same time, many U.S. corporations are outsourcing technology-related jobs to such countries as India, China and Pakistan. Instead of those white-collar jobs going overseas, ARS envisions bringing many of those positions back to rural America.

The group's biggest selling point is that doing business in Arkansas is substantially cheaper than any other place in the U.S., including other "tech valleys" at San Francisco and Austin, Texas.

According to neoIT Inc. CEO Atul Vashistha, who sits on the ARS board, rural Arkansas also provides U.S. corporations with fewer legal and labor risk factors than doing business overseas.

"Our model ... combined with the stated objective of supporting economic expansion and work force diversity make ARS the best domestic sourcing option," said Henry Torres, a former Wal-Mart executive who was recently hired as ARS' new director.

Meanwhile, this weekend, Mattel Chairman and CEO Robert Eckert was invited to the ASU campus by the Horizon Institute to speak on the crucial role of leadership and information technology in a company's success. White, who was named to Forbes magazine's Top 25 America's Businesswomen 2001 list, sees this as the beginning of something big.

"Strong local leadership and innovative partnerships with national leaders in industry will allow rural communities to charter their own global future as participants in a worldwide economy," White says.