Team

The Leadership Team

Alese Stroud

CEO

Mark Hill

Partner

Elizabeth Small

Associate Partner

The Advisory Board

Joe Bell, MBA, J.D.

James Hendren, Ph.D.

Joe Calhoun, J.D.

Carol Ansley Bodge

Barry Goldberg

John Foley

Consultants

These consultants have experience with the TRaX process.

Feel free to contact them for information about the process.

Grey Williams

Consultant

Stephanie Fox

Consultant

Casey Weidner

Consultant

David Moody

Consultant

CEO

Alese Stroud

Alese Stroud serves Corporate Insight Strategy as founder and CEO. Alese also provides executive leadership for both The Stroud Group Consulting and Purple Moon Properties. Her consulting client list reads like a who’s who of the largest banks in the US.

Alese is nationally recognized for her expertise in financial software project management, customer account analysis and profitability analysis. She is an experienced board member, currently serving Rotary Club 99 and MKPI in that capacity. She also serves the Little Rock entrepreneurial ecosystem as a master mentor at The Venture Center.

Partner

Mark Hill

Mark Hill is a Partner at Corporate Insight Strategy LLC and Managing Partner of MKP Inspired LLC, both US based business consultancy firms. Mark brings senior executive level experience from a fortune 500 company in the IT industry where he had responsibility for approximately $1 billion in sales revenues. Subsequently, as President of a startup business his executive team laid the foundation for the company to grow into a highly profitable enterprise which today does business on five continents. Mark works as an executive coach and mentor across a wide spectrum of businesses ranging from startup ventures to large publicly traded companies. An engineer by trade Mark graduated with an HNC from Guildford College in the United Kingdom.

Associate Partner

Elizabeth Small

Elizabeth Small worked in the real estate development and commercial construction industry for over 32 years before joining CIS. As the President/CEO and co-owner of PDC Companies and PDC Construction, Inc., Elizabeth’s specific skills include strategy, decision-making, day-to- day management operations and business development. She believes culture is critical to the success of every business and it is related to every outcome. Having recently sold her interest in the business she helped build, her insight into culture is solid. Elizabeth has a BS from Hendrix College and an MBA from UALR.

Advisory Board Member

Joe Bell, MBA, J.D.

Joe Bell currently serves as the Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas Little Rock.

He began his career as in-house counsel for a comprehensive multi-family real estate development and syndication firm. He served as a securities attorney, reviewing and qualifying IPOs and other investment vehicles for the State of Michigan.

Joe is a co-founder and board member of a highly funded pharmaceutical research and development company. He is currently an active co-founder and board member of multiple companies in the healthcare, consumer product, and integrated systems industries. He served as the Associate Director for Business Development at UAMS BioVentures, the medical university’s technology transfer office.

Advisory Board Member

James Hendren, Ph.D.

Dr. James K. Hendren has been the entrepreneurial champion for the advancement of technology startup companies and knowledge job development since the mid-1980’s. He received his doctorate in physics from the University of Arkansas in 1972, providing a foundation for his successful career in sophisticated software development in both the defense and finance industries. James was CEO, then Chairman of Arkansas Systems, Inc. (ARKSYS), one of the early Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) “high-tech” companies. While growing that company from a small, home-grown company to an internationally known corporation, he served on the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority board of directors and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission where he lead the charge for changing the economic development strategies to include high tech startup companies. Dr. Hendren has spearheaded the efforts to produce an excellent environment to encourage startup companies in Arkansas.

He has formally worked with more than thirty technology startup companies being CEO of four. He has mentored over a hundred startups; helping them move forward.

He is the Chairman of the Arkansas Venture Center, where he actively participates in the direction of the Center and as an active mentor to members of the Center.

Advisory Board Member

Joe Calhoun, J.D.

As founder of Calhoun Law Firm, an intellectual property law boutique, Joe specializes in IP issues unique to business start-up and expansion.

Calhoun Law Firm maintains offices and regular outreach in several states. The Firm works directly with business and individual clients, as well as providing services to other law firms who are without IP attorneys.

Joe was a partner at Gill, Elrod, Ragon, Owen, Calhoun & Sherman prior to launching his own practice. He is a graduate of Tulane University and earned his J.D. at the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Joe volunteers as a mentor at The Venture Center in Little Rock, where he consults with start-ups who are working to scale.

Advisory Board Member

Carol Ansley Bodge

Carol Ansley Bodge is a global marketing and business development leader turned health care entrepreneur known for delivering results. Her track record of success spans both Fortune 50 and mid-cap telecommunications corporations and the largest for-profit hospital corporation. In 2009 she formed her own urgent care company which she successfully built to be sold in late 2013. Currently she is the Founder and CEO of Ansley Bodge, LLC, a little company she formed in 2016 to formally use her years of business experience to help start-ups and small businesses succeed.

At AT&T Ms. Bodge held numerous positions as she rose through the ranks, including Managing Director-AT&T de Mexico. That position led to her role as VP-International Operations at IXC Communications before being tapped as VP-Marketing for Emerging Service Providers at Nortel Networks. In 2002 she was named VP-Strategic Development at HCA’s Medical City Dallas Hospital.

Ms. Bodge received her MBA from the Cox School of Business at SMU and her BS-English from Texas Tech University. Throughout her career she has served in leadership positions of many non-profits and community organizations.

Advisory Board Member

Barry Goldberg

Barry Goldberg is an executive coach and Vistage chair. Barry’s coaching clients are high-potential executives, operating committees and boards. He has traveled the globe providing coaching services for the United Nations. Barry maintains certification with Marshall Goldsmith, Myers-Briggs and the International Coaches Association.

Barry served TedX Markham Street at MC in 2016. He has guest lectured at the William J. Clinton Graduate School of Public Service and served as adjunct faculty for the U of A EMBA program.

Advisory Board Member

John Foley

John Foley is currently Executive Director of FRA Financial Group and an agent at The Insurance Center, both in Little Rock. John has a long career in the commercial banking industry, including the presidency at Central Bank and various roles at Landmark, Metropolitan and Bank of America.

John is a graduate of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program Class XXI and has served on various boards and committees including Little Scholars School Board, Little Rock Catholic Dioceses Finance Committee, Christ the Kings Parish Finance Committee, and St. Edwards School Board. He is a former member of the Downtown Development Partnership. John’s past civic work includes Rotary International, Big Brother Big Sister and fund raising for the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association.

Consultant

Grey Williams

Grey works with small businesses, providing strategic advisory and tactical execution services in general management, marketing, human resources, technology, and finance.

Consultant

Stephanie Fox

Consultant

Casey Weidner

Casey provides Fortune 150 experience and expertise to small and middle market companies.

This results in increased profits due to lower costs associated with the critical materials, machines, and equipment they need to operate. He is a Strategic Procurement Expert that has developed and refined techniques that increase negotiating leverage. This has been accomplished by working with 100’s of companies and negotiating more than $4 billion in contracts and saving $100’s of millions.

Casey has an undergraduate degree in Marketing from Northern Illinois University (NIU) and a Master of Business Administration from Texas Christian University (TCU).

Consultant

David Moody

David Moody is a startup mentor & investor, speaker, consultant and COO for hire.

He is founder of Jacksson David LLC.