News
Winrock and Kasetsart
February 19, 2020
A Winrock Legacy Story Winrock International’s connection with Thailand’s Kasetsart University began before Winrock itself. Only 12 years after Kasetsart was established in 1943, one of Winrock’s founding organizations, the New York City-based Agricultural Development Council (then known as the Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs), began helping Kasetsart University form an agricultural economics program. It was […]
Refining the Process
February 10, 2020
It was 2015 and the oil market had just crashed as Michael Smith sat down to lunch in Little Rock with his friend Barry Lile. In more than two decades as a salesman in the used oil business, Smith had developed a national network of suppliers such as car repair shops, quick lubes, grocery stores […]
DRA and Winrock Extend Delta I-Fund to Help Delta Entrepreneurs Launch Startups
February 5, 2020
The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) has awarded Winrock International a $675,785 grant to continue the successful Delta Innovation Fund (I-Fund) program through October 2021. Modeled on the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, the I-Fund is a proof-of-concept business training program designed to assist potential start-up companies emerging from universities and communities across the DRA’s eight-state, […]
How Arkansas Became the Nation’s Edamame Capital
January 23, 2020
A Winrock Legacy Story Herby Ault, who farms near Dardanelle, Arkansas, had never heard of edamame when Kelly Cartwright first approached him about growing it. But Cartwright, an agricultural scientist and entrepreneur, had done the math and knew it would work. “We had the numbers and we also had the market,” says Cartwright, who leads the Natural […]
‘You can accomplish a dream — you can jump out there and do it.’
December 13, 2019
“I grew up in a family with 56 women and four men. So essentially, we had a whole lotta moms and not a lot of dads” Winrock’s Chauncey Holloman Pettis told the crowd at The Yarn, an organization that uses the power of storytelling to build understanding and human connection in Little Rock, Arkansas. “This left the […]
Matching Innovation to Need
December 12, 2019
Luis took a break from the virtual welding station and approached a man holding a pen and a reporter’s notebook. Luis, 50, drives a forklift on an early-morning shift, he explained, and welding could be a path to a brighter and more lucrative future. “It’s a good option for when I need a new job,” […]
Growing Businesses Through Peer Support
October 18, 2019
As busy leaders of dynamic organizations, CEOs often lament how hard it is to find the time and environment to process challenges only they can understand. “It is lonely at the top,” as they say. To meet this need, Innovate Arkansas (IA) has developed a unique series of forums that bring together Arkansas startup founders […]
Climate Week NYC 2019: Where are we on climate finance?
October 9, 2019
Climate Week NYC takes place every year alongside the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and could be described to a lay person as a climate event with the scale and enthusiasm equal to the combination of Lollapalooza, SXSW and Woodstock. I would have included Burning Man but for the ominous metaphorical link to global warming. […]
Responding to the Call to Action
September 27, 2019
The Global Commission for Adaptation (GCA)’s “Call to Action” report released on September 19, 2019 is a highly anticipated urgent plea for investment and increased effort for adaptation ahead of the UN Climate week and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties in Chile (COP25) in December. It is a tour […]
Clinicpass Breaks Through With Help From Innovate Arkansas
August 22, 2019
Tracy Cornwell Simpson had worked in medical device and pharmaceutical sales for years when she spotted an opportunity. She noticed that medical clinics and industry groups kept expressing concerns about a 2010 federal law aimed at increasing transparency around visits to clinics by pharmaceutical representatives. Thus was born Simpson’s company, a web-based service called Clinicpass […]