Seven Little Rock Area Executives Named to St. Louis Fed's District Industry Councils

Little Rock, Ark. —The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has created four District Industry Councils and named executives from seven area firms to serve on them. Each Council will represent a specific industry within the Federal Reserve's Eighth District and will be based out of each of the Reserve Bank's offices: St. Louis (real estate), Little Rock (agribusiness), Louisville (health care) and Memphis (transportation) The Councils will meet twice a year.

"We created these councils to build a consistent and dependable line of communication regarding economic conditions within several specific industry sectors throughout the Fed's Eighth District," said Bill Poole, president and CEO of the St. Louis Fed. "Each Council has been identified as being particularly useful to gauge the overall condition of the Eighth District's economy. The members will complement the data and information developed through the Federal Reserve's Beige Book and meetings of our boards of directors."

The Little Rock area executives and the councils on which each will serve are:

• Bert Greenwalt, Ph.D., professor of agricultural economics, Arkansas State University (agribusiness);
• Russell D. Harrington, Jr., president and CEO, Baptist Health (health care);
• Cal McCastlain, partner, Pender, McCastlain & Ptak (agribusiness);
• Jack R. McCray, senior vice president for real estate acquisitions and development, Bank of the Ozarks (real estate);
• Dennis Oakley, president, Bruce Oakley, Inc., North Little Rock (transportation);
• Richard Pierson, vice chancellor for clinical programs, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (health care); and
• Kirk Thompson, president and CEO, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Lowell, Ark.

(NOTE: Photos of the Council members are available by calling 314/444-8311.)

With branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis serves the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which includes all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. The St. Louis Fed is one of 12 regional Reserve banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., comprise the Federal Reserve System. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates U.S. monetary policy, regulates state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies, and provides payment services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.

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