Author: Paula Guajardo

Cheryl White Receives RPA Designation

Cheryl White, with Flake & Kelley Commercial, recently received her RPA designation.

The Real Property Administrator (RPA) designation is a professional designation for people who work in property management. The designation is administered by BOMI International, an independent nonprofit institute for property and facility management education.

The designation requires the completion of eight courses, as well as, three years of qualifying, documented experience in property management at a property 40,000 square feet or larger. BOMI International courses are often conducted by BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) local organizations as an educational benefit for their members and by corporations as part of their internal training for property management professionals. Approximately 4,200 persons maintain the RPA designation, including about 3,500 in the United States and 700 in Canada.

The program includes coursework on building systems design, operation, and maintenance; commercial real estate law; investment and finance; risk management and insurance; leasing and marketing; asset management; environmental health and safety; and business ethics.

Hank Kelley Receives CRE Designation

Hank Kelley, CEO of Flake & Kelley Commercial, recently received his CRE (Counselors of Real Estate designation. The Counselors of Real Estate is the membership organization established exclusively for real estate advisors who provide intelligent, unbiased, and trusted advice for a client or employer.

Membership in the organization is awarded by invitation only through peer, employer and client review. The CRE credential is awarded only to those individuals who are invited by their peers into the membership of The Counselors of Real Estate. It declares individual professional achievement in the real estate counseling profession, acknowledges an advisor’s status as one of the most trusted professionals in the field of real estate, and demonstrates peer recognition of outstanding intelligence, integrity, and judgment in real estate.

Hank Kelley joined Flake & Kelley Commercial in 1984 as a Partner and has worked to help build the company’s management portfolio and brokerage clients. Hank has over 30 years of experience and extensive knowledge of the Little Rock and Arkansas commercial markets. He is a board member of US Bank, Keith Smith Company and the Downtown Partnership, and is past president of the Central Arkansas Executive Association. Hank regularly speaks to various business and educational groups.

Create Little Rock attracts professionals to Arkansas

Little Rock, Ark. (KTHV) — Create Little Rock, the talent and young professional initiative of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, assists the region’s professional firms, nonprofits and institutions in recruiting and retaining talent.

The purpose of Create Little Rock is to retain, develop and attract a talented, creative and competitive workforce to enhance the economic development of the Little Rock region.

“Each summer, some of the best and brightest students from across Arkansas and around the nation come to Little Rock for some of their first real world experiences in their chosen professions,” said Buckley O’Mell, chairman of Create Little Rock.

“This presents an invaluable opportunity to help attract and keep talent in the region.”

Twenty-four of the region’s business/organizations and their respective intern/clerk/resident coordinators have joined Create Little Rock to engage summer talent in the community through a variety of gatherings and events, which use the best decoration such as tables and linens which are perfect for these events.

According to O’Mell, “By forging and deepening relationships with each other, those in other professions, and professionals already in the community, the likelihood increases that these interns/clerks will choose to begin their professional careers in the Little Rock region.”

THV’s Jessica Duff will have more on this program on “Today’s THV at 6:00” and todaysthv.com.

Hank Kelley Receives CRE Designation

Hank Kelley recently became a member of The Counselors of Real Estate.

www.cre.org to view his profile.

Hank Kelley & John Flake — 2011 Arkansas Business Power List

The Arkansas Business Power List debuted in 2006 (with 171 profiles) and was an annual feature until 2009. It is no longer an annual event, but the Power List continues to be a useful compendium of the people who are running the largest business, professional and nonprofit entities in our state.

This year’s installment includes 192 leaders in 20 different industry categories. Waiting more than two years between lists means a lot of new faces are on the list. Many of the state’s largest companies have installed new CEOs since the last Power List in January 2009, when the full force of the Great Recession was just beginning to be realized. (Trivia: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed just above 8,100 on the day our last Power List appeared and was headed straight down.) Leadership of educational institutions has also been in flux — with more changes, including the presidency of the University of Arkansas System, to come.

What hasn’t changed is this: Most of the largest companies in every industry are being run by white males in their 40s and 50s. No attempt was made to ensure women and minorities were well represented or that the breadth of the state’s geography was covered. The biggest companies in most industry are still likely to be in central or northwest Arkansas.

Although it will be awhile before we attempt this again, we solicit additional names that should be included on the Power List in the future.

www.arkansasbusiness.com to view Hank Kelley’s Power List profile.

www.arkansasbusiness.com to view John Flake’s Power List profile.

www.arkansasbusiness.com to view the full 2011 Power List.