Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
BUSINESS PEOPLE
Kim Bryden, the CEO of Cureate, has been named a winner of this year’s Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award by the Food Logistics magazine. The award recognizes influential individuals in the industry whose achievements, hard work and vision have shaped the global cold food supply chain.
Marilyn Youmans has been promoted to vice president of finance for Washington Regional. A Fayetteville native, Youmans has worked for Washington Regional for 47 years and previously held the title of executive director of finance.
D.J. Burrows, a certified public accountant, has been named vice president and chief accounting officer for Washington Regional. Burrows has served as Washington Regional’s controller since 2020. He is an Arkansas native and holds a master of business administration from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield has announced the promotion of three ArkansasBlue Welcome Center supervisors to the role of manager. Brandy Karnes has been promoted to manager of the ArkansasBlue Welcome Center at 3501 Old Greenwood Road in Fort Smith. She has been with Arkansas Blue Cross for more than 19 years. Candice Holt has been promoted to manager of the ArkansasBlue Welcome center located at 4602 W. Walnut St. in Rogers. Holt began her career at Arkansas Blue Cross more than eight years ago. Niki Nickell has been promoted to lead operations as manager at the ArkansasBlue Welcome Center at 3013 N. College Ave. in Fayetteville.
Kelly Thompson-Davis, an advanced practice registered nurse/family medicine provider, recently joined the active medical staff of Northwest Health, practicing at Northwest Medical Plaza at Pinnacle, located at 2000 S. 42nd St., Suite 100, in Rogers. Board certified as a family nurse practitioner, Thompson-Davis earned his undergraduate and master of science in nursing degrees from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Jason C. Adams, professional engineer, executive vice president of Benchmark Group, Inc., was recently elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Rogers-Lowell Chamber. He is a licensed electrical engineer and also serves on Benchmark Group’s board of directors.
Jacob Perry has been hired to fill a newly established role of chief growth officer for Great Plains Transport. Perry has over a decade of leadership and business development experience to help shippers navigate rapidly evolving markets for capacity. As chief growth officer, Perry will work to refine Great Plains Transport’s customer development process.
Briefs are for people in Northwest Arkansas who are new hires, were promoted, received an award from outside their organization or received a certification. Email: lthompson@nwaonline.com Information must be received by noon Wednesday prior to the Sunday the item is to be published.