This week on the podcast, we turn the mic to Matt as he is interviewed by incoming interim dean and new podcast host, Brent Williams. They reflect on Matt's transformative 8-year tenure as dean and how they initially met when Brent was a student of Matt's. They discuss key highlights during Matt's time as dean and then look to the future. Looking ahead, Matt shares his plans to return to research and teaching, while also supporting entrepreneurs across Northwest Arkansas. Stay tuned for next week's episode where Matt will interview Brent about the future of the Walton College in his final episode as host.

That difficult time I had made us better. We trusted

each other more, because we had to trust each other more. And we

were able to just work so efficiently and effectively. It

was a it's a memorable time in my life.

Excellence, professionalism, innovation, and collegiality.

These are the values the Sam M. Walton College of Business

explores in education, business and the lives of people we meet

every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of the Walton College, and

welcome to the be epic podcast.

Well, I have with me today, Matt Waller for

this audience. He probably needs absolutely no introduction. But

you've been listening to him for some time as the moderator of

this podcast. But Matt, as you know, is the outgoing dean of

the Sam M. Walton College of Business, has been a professor

at the University of Arkansas for many, many years, and has

just been a valued member of the community here. So Matt, thank

you for being willing to join me today.

Thank you for having me. This is the first

time I've been a guest on the be epic podcast. Thanks for taking

it over.

Yeah, you're on. You're on the other side of the

of the table. Well, the last eight years that you have been

dean at, I think, has truly been remarkable for the Walton

College, I think the college has gone through in its history, you

know, a couple of real transformational periods. But

in, you know, being able to be around the Walton College for at

least the last 20 years and understand a lot of its history.

I I do think that the last eight years that you've been dean has

been transformational. So, you know, well, one. And so I want

to, I want to get to some of the highlights. But, you know, I was

thinking that this audience with you, as the moderator may not

have really gotten to hear your story. So I mentioned, you know,

you've been a faculty here, but you've also been a founder,

you're clearly an entrepreneur. So maybe tell us a little bit

about your background?

Sure. Well, when I came here, in 1994, I came as a

visiting assistant professor, that means I had a job for a

year, essentially, I didn't know exactly what I was going to do

after that. But I, after I moved here, well, even before I moved

here, I had been following what was going on with Walmart and

the suppliers moving to town. And I remember even when I was a

doctoral student at Penn State, I read an article about Walmart.

I think this would have been in 1989. I can't remember,

somewhere around there. I read an article about Walmart,

sharing point of sale data with Procter and Gamble, and they

were planning on rolling it out to all of their suppliers. So

that means sales data by store by day on hand inventory, many

other variables. And I got to thinking about it. And you know,

part of this story really well. I was very fortunate at Penn

State, I had some amazing classes and professors, I really

did. And they were just leaders in their fields and research.

But in one of the classes, it was a economics like an advanced

economics class in macroeconomics class, we read a

paper. I think it was called something like information

substitutes for inventory. And it was just the idea that the

more information you have, the less inventory you really need.

Because inventory can help you still need some because you can

economize by having more inventory. Anyway, I won't go

into all of it, but you don't need as much safety stock. In

other words, if you knew exactly what was gonna happen, then you

could just have that that amount of inventory and you'd satisfy

demand. You may still have some cycle stock for economizing on

the inventory, transportation, for example, but I thought okay,

this makes sense. Walmart would share this information to

substitute for inventory. And in retail inventory is so critical.

It's like, you can't live with it and you can't live without

it. If you have too much inventory, your return on assets

is going to go down your return and that will affect your stock

price. If and you'll also have more inventory going bad if you

have not enough inventory, you're gonna miss sales and you

may miss the margin on those sales. You may have customers

leave the store, eventually you may lose the customer

altogether. And I believe based on my research that and

experience that is part of the reason Kmart failed, you know

Kmart, Walmart and Target all started in 1962. And Walmart

just grew so fast. It's unbelievable. And I won't go

into all of this, but I remember so before I came here, Kmart was

bigger than Walmart. Yet again, through some I took a class in.

And we didn't talk necessarily about Walmart, specifically, but

I would happen to find articles on it. But we talked about

economies of scope and economies of scale and how you build your

network. And, you know, the Walmart idea of using

distribution centers close to stores, was a unique idea. You

know, the competitors to Walmart would just put stores in the

best location. And Walmart would say, let's build the stores

within a certain distance of a distribution center. Because by

having them close, you can have a shorter lead times to the

store, meaning you need less inventory at safety stock in the

stores. But you can also have full truckloads to the stores.

Heterogeneous truckloads. I won't go on and on about all

this stuff. But my point is the seed had been planted for

Northwest Arkansas. And I kept reading more about what was

going on here. And I was fascinated by it. But I also

talked to my doctoral peers, I would talk to my professors

about it, they knew very little about, I knew more about Walmart

than they did. But I was always using Walmart as an example of

what I was learning. And Walmart, again, you could argue,

well, okay, great. They're in a small part of the country.

They're probably not going to do very well, given where they are,

you know. But once the economies of scale kicked in, Walmart blew

past everybody. And of course, Walmart is really good at

pivoting, which is a whole nother story. So when I first

came here, I was very fortunate. I got to have lunch with Lee

Scott, who was Executive Vice President of logistics, for

Walmart. I had no idea who was going to become a CEO. We had a

long lunch. And he agreed to he got me involved in a project at

Walmart. And I, my co author was a industrial engineering

professor. And we worked on this cool optimization problem. And I

got to know a bunch of people there and loved it. And I won't

go on and on. But I've always been involved with Walmart to

some degree, and the vendors and the carriers. And so my

knowledge of the retail value chain just kept going up.

Because I kept, I started doing lots of research and I, I did

research and, you know, on the intersection of merchandising

and logistics, and lots of other areas, but so I came here, there

was only, I had a year. And I met some business people, some

retired people from Walmart. And there were four of them. And we

started a consulting firm, early on in my time here, doesn't

exist anymore. But it was called Bentonville Associates, which is

a cool name you know.

Yeah.

It it signals what it is pretty quickly. And within

the first year, we I think we did $650,000 year one, and we

had no overhead. And we didn't even have to rent the space

because one of my partners owned the first real major office park

here, Bo Terre. And so we use space there. We even used his

admin. So I mean, it was, you know, that's the thing about

Walmart. They think let's do things efficiently. And it was a

good lesson for me in life. I live that way personally, as you

know. And but I thought, wow, it makes so much sense. You can

make better decisions when you're frugal. You're not

dependent on every dollar, you know, you can say let's do

what's best. But so I Doyle Williams was dean at the time,

and he was unbelievably good dean, great dean.

I think he was the other period of

transformation by the way.

Oh my gosh, he was remarkable. And I was fortunate

in that similar to you, he let me get involved in things I had

no business being involved in, including the first gift, the

big gift we got from the Walton Family Charitable Support

Foundation, the $50 million that resulted in us being the Walton

College of Business, I got involved in that process a

little bit early on, and I was an assistant professor, so I

did, Doyle, the other thing is Doyle believed in me. And so he

took a position an existing position from the finance

department and moved it to the marketing department, because we

didn't have our own department back then, it was marketing and

transportation. And and I got that position.

Well, you know, I don't know that I've thought

about this, Matt. But it's kind of a funny story, Doyle believed

in you, and found a position and made it happen. And I don't know

if you remember this. When I was transitioning from the master's

program to the Ph D program, there was not a slot for me. And

you believed in me, and you had to go find that slot and made it

happen. I've never thought about the parallel between those

stories.

Boy, that's true. And I had to go to another

department, I actually went to, well, I had to do a bunch of

things. But one, one thing was funding. And so, Bill Hargrave,

who's now the president of the University of Memphis, was

running the RFID Lab. And there was a project we were working

on, and I said, hey, could we fund this doctoral student? He

said, absolutely. He's a great guy to collaborate with.

Well, Bill reminded me of that many years

ago, when I was at Auburn, and told him, I was coming to

Arkansas. He was my dean at Auburn. And he reminded me of

that story.

Well, you know, and it gets this gets back to this

concept of being frugal, too. Okay, we didn't have enough

resources for it. But we figured out how to make it work. I think

that sometimes, being a little scarce on resources teaches you

to be more creative, more innovative, more

entrepreneurial, you know. And, boy, when I look at, you know,

the resources we have today, compared to what we had, then

it's so different. I remember, as a new professor here, there

used to be this rule that. So we have the University of Arkansas

Fort Smith, but it used to be called West Ark Community

College. And there were some rule that we had to teach an MBA

class there every year, at least one per year. And I had the

fortune of being selected because I was the newbie, I

think I did it while I was a visiting assistant professor.

Yeah. So I had to teach this course in Fort Smith. And back

then we didn't have I 49. And the road was very dangerous. And

I taught it on Monday nights, from six to 10, six to 10. And

you know, Brent, I'm a morning person. I'm in bed by nine

o'clock. And so I had to drive down this really dangerous road.

And I found out later, it was the sixth most dangerous road in

the United States based on deaths per mile per year. And I

was, so I struggling you know I would teach. And it took a long

time. Now, it's pretty quick to get to Fort Smith. But back then

it took a long, long drive.

Well, I mean, quite a departure, you know,

from where the Walton College is and the, you know, the, I guess,

and you've, you've been a huge part of finding ways to I think

you have infused an entrepreneurial spirit into into

us as a college that I think existed, but you really helped

to accelerate that. And, you know, when you look back over

the last eight years, that you've served as dean, and while

I know hard at times, I truly believe you've loved it and

given it absolutely everything you had. What are some of the

highlights that really stand out to you during that period?

Well, that's a good, good question. I'm gonna

bring up one that's very personal. And it shows the

importance of having a good team. So you are an Associate

Dean, Anne O'Leary Kelly, Alan Ellstrand. And we had Tanya and

the whole team and in 2017, I was diagnosed with colorectal

cancer that had spread and yeah, it didn't look good. I had to go

through radiation and chemo and the fall in the fall, spring of

17, surgeries in the summer of 17 more chemo in the fall, and

then a final surgery in November of 2017. And, you know, when I

was, I had only been dean for two years by that point. And I

talked to some people and I said, Matt, you're gonna, you're

gonna really feel tired after the chemo and the radiation and

weak. And I thought, oh my gosh, because you're right, I love I

love being dean. And I loved great being an entrepreneurial

dean and being starting new things and growing them. And I

thought, well, I'm not going to have the energy for that. You

know? And, but, so I started thinking about delegating more.

So this was a great lesson for me. But it's a lesson to anyone,

the importance of delegation. Okay, so I had to delegate a

bunch of stuff to my entire team, because I thought that I

was gonna be weak, and not be able to operate fully. And, of

course, I was in the hospital for a month in Dallas, and, and

you and I was in the hospital for 10 days in Northwest

Arkansas, in November, I think, or October, no November. But,

but I delegated all this work to you all. And it turns out, I

didn't have as bad a reaction to the radiation and chemo, as a

lot of people do. And I was able to function quite well, I, I

worked every day, I never missed one day of work, due to chemo

and radiation, at least in the spring. Now, in the fall, there

was one exception where I did. But you know, we got a lot done

in 2017. And I wouldn't have got as much done, had I not

delegated. So my sickness, forced me to delegate, but that

delegation wouldn't have worked if I wouldn't have had a good

team. So people that are listening to this, I can say one

leadership takeaway that I've learned, is build a great team

and delegate to them. And don't micromanage them.

Well, and I think maybe that connects to you

know, what I would have added to that, which was empowerment, you

know, so when I think about being a part of that, one, we

were a close team, in a really short period of time, we had

bonded, and we're all on the same page, and all understood

the mission and what we were trying to accomplish. But I

think Anne and Alan would agree with me that we all felt

empowered. And we felt empowered to make decisions. We felt

supported when we made those decisions, even if they weren't,

right. And there's absolutely no doubt that we I'm sure made

mistakes and might have made decisions that you wouldn't have

made. But I think that boy that period really created trust. And

it it just gave us more bandwidth in a really short

period of time that seemed to launch us into that next phase,

even though it came from, you know, something terrible.

Well, that's right. And I was really sad about it.

Because I probably get too much of my identity from my job. And

at my accomplishments, you know, I thrive in that and probably

too much, but I was so sad when this diagnosis came. I was not

scared. Even though I had heard I may have only a 10% chance of

living five years. That didn't scare me as much as the thought

of not being able to do a good job by far, and I was sad for a

long time. And so once I started getting the radiation and chemo,

I realized, oh, I can do okay, I'd already delegated a bunch of

stuff. And I was supposed to be in the hospital for three days

in June of that year and I wound up being there a month. Thank

goodness I delegated. And you really took the ball and ran

with the McMillon Studio. We had already had the gift but you

know we got that going. We got the Brewer Hub up and running

that year. We got a $7 million gift for the supply chain policy

initiative. We got the online accounting degree created, the

online undergraduate supply chain management degree. And

then in the next year, you know, the Blockchain Center of

Excellence was started, which was terrific. And we started the

Dean's roundtable of entrepreneurs and market makers.

And then we got the Walton College at 2nd and main going,

we got another million dollar gift from Doug and Shelly

McMillon, and then things just started rocketing from there.

That's, I really think 2020 is when all of the fruit of that

started being manifested because in 2020, we started a brand new

department, the department of strategy, entrepreneurship, and

venture innovation, which has been great. The supply chain

undergraduate program got ranked number one in North America by

Gartner, the Dillard the the accounting department got

endowed with a $10 million gift William Dillard Department of

Accounting, we created the Master of Science in economic

analytics, the Master of Professional Accounting, the

Master of Applied Business Analytics, master of supply

chain management, Master of Science in finance. We started

the business integrity leadership Initiative, with

Cindy Moehring, who used to be the chief ethics officer at

Walmart for 20 years, we started the supply chain hall of fame in

Rogers, the we got a gift from JB Hunt for 2.2 million. All of

that really happened in 2020. But it was based on work that

had already really been done, it just came to fruition. And I do

think you're right, that that difficult time I had made us

better. We trusted each other more, because we had to trust

each other more. And we were able to just work so efficiently

and effectively. It was a it's a memorable time in my life. This

doesn't happen much in leadership teams. There's very

few times throughout history, where you get to experience that

kind of productivity as a team really.

I couldn't agree more. You're right. And and then

you get that really creates joy out of the work.

It does.

You know. So, as Dean, you know, when I think

back to what you just read us, I mean, there truly was an

entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, I guess, mindset that was really

at hand. And in doing that, I think that wasn't about us. It

was about really serving our stakeholders, right, it was

about bettering our students, it was about getting them better

jobs and helping them succeed in life. And then, you know, it's

about serving our state better by bringing expertise. It truly

was about building things that built up our stakeholders.

Well you know, the entrepreneur mindset. Really,

it's about saying, what are the problems out there? And how can

we overcome those problems? If you look at what we did over the

past eight years, as a team, we focused on that we see an issue.

We try to address it. And we don't I mean, you look at all

these things we did. We didn't have the resources to do it. But

we did it. And it generated more resources than we could have

ever imagined. The budget of the college has just grown

dramatically. And we're contributing back to the

university a lot of resources as well.

Yeah, a virtuous cycle.

It is.

Well, let me switch gears to the podcast. You

know, you've had, you've had some dedicated listeners for the

last several years. And I think that as of your last podcast, I

think it's around 240 episodes, if not maybe a touch more. So,

you know, for those that have been dedicated listeners

following along, what is the podcast experience been for you?

Why did you think it was so important because you've clearly

dedicated a lot of your time and resources to it. But I think

it's made a tremendous impact for expanding the reach of the

college.

First of all, there's no other dean of a

business school that has 240 podcasts. So I, you know, we,

our college podcast episodes, usually universities, and Dean's

or whoever start them and they quit, or they start them and

then handed off to someone else. I felt it was important to stick

with it. And I'm glad you want to do it and continue it.

Because if you think about it, one of the most important

variables in leadership is setting the direction of

whatever entity it is gaining alignment of people, motivating

people. And the podcast can do that in so many different ways.

You know, you you wind up, of course, I have talked to

faculty, staff, alumni, and other people. Sometimes I read a

book and I think I really liked this, I call the author and say,

can I interview you for this book, I've done that maybe four

or five times maybe more than that. But with alumni, and not

just alumni, but people somehow who might be related to the

college in some way or should be related. It forms a bond between

between them and the college, when they finally do a podcast.

And then me as the dean, I've actually had people asked me,

you know, why don't you just have someone else do the podcast

rather than you? And the answer is, I'm the leader of the

college I, I'm the one that takes responsibility for

boundary spanning and for sense making. And boundary spanning

and sense making are two important functions of a leader.

And so in a way, this allows me to span the boundaries, but it

also allows me to make sense to to engage in sense making I hear

something, and in the podcast, I'll start talking about how it

relates to the college. And so people say, oh, that's how it

relates to the college. And I think as you know, we've

actually had, I remember a few years ago, there was a student

who was a freshman at KU. And he started listening to our

podcast. KU, University of Kansas. And he thought, there's

more going on at Arkansas, and Walton College than I'm seeing

going on here. No offense to KU, but it's a this is what he said.

And he switched. his sophomore year, he was here in the Walton

College, he's graduated.

As dean, you're certainly the chief executive.

But I think in watching you in the role, you also served as

chief learner for the college. And I think that this podcast

was probably a way for you to learn from more than 240 people.

I've learned something from every podcast,

some podcasts, I've learned a lot. And one thing I noticed,

when you do a podcast recording interview of someone, you

remember more content, than if you just have a discussion with

someone. At least that's been true for me, it anchors it in

your brain. And so then when you see them the next time you

remember all this content, and it allows you to connect to them

better, but it also has actually made me start, some of the

initiatives I've started in part have been a result of things

I've learned through the podcasts. And also you learn

things that people don't want public. There's been times I've

interviewed faculty, staff, students, alumni, and they'll

say, let me tell you something, Matt, I'm not gonna say this on

the podcast, but I've been wanting to tell you this. So it

gives people a opportunity to share things with you that they

wouldn't normally share. And I think that the fact that you're

inviting someone to be on the podcast, it starts. It shows

that, you know, trust has three components. And one component is

that you have the person's best interests in mind. And that

component, like if you if you, if you have someone on as to

interview them, it shows you care about them to some degree,

or you wouldn't have mind. So trust starts building as a

result of that.

Well, I'm excited to keep the podcast

going. I think it's very important. And I look forward to

meeting all the future guests and learning from them. This is

a tremendous opportunity for me. So thank you for making it a

reality. And I know for those of us that have been dedicated

listeners, we've all learned from you and from your guests.

So here's a question that I think you we've got to be of

interest to those that have followed you and followed the

podcast. Well so you've been dean for eight years, well, one,

why are you going back to faculty? And but you know, after

you explain that, tell us a little bit more about what's in

your plans.

Sure. So, you know, I believe in rotational

leadership, there's this concept called rotational leadership.

And I've encouraged it in our college, I like to take people

out of positions, they're comfortable in after a few years

and put them somewhere else. I mean, amongst the associate,

deans, we've mixed up all kinds of thing. But I do think, you

know, it's like for department chairs, I don't think department

chairs should be in that position for 10, more than 10

years for sure. Eight years is probably enough. Now, there's

some cases where you need to keep them going. So I want to

say this. And I've said this publicly before, if you were not

wanting to be Dean, I wouldn't step down right now. Because

even though I think it's better for me to rotate out, I wouldn't

do it unless I knew there was someone really good to take my

place. And in your case, I think you will excel as dean, I think

you're gonna take us to new levels.

Thank you.

I wouldn't step down right now. Now. And usually

they don't let Dean's be a part of the search process to replace

them, which I think is a mistake. Who else? I mean, you

definitely want the input of the sitting dean or the former dean.

I don't understand that at all. But but that's what I would do.

And but you're ready. There's no question in my mind. And I've

used a lot of my entrepreneurial spirit has been important during

this phase. I think you bring things that I don't have, that

we need. And I think that, and I know you do, because I've worked

with you for 20 years, so I know what your strengths are. And I

think it's time for a change. I've given my best to this

organization. But I'm also a little bit like that I I prefer

new things now that this I'm so if you would have asked me year

one, do you think you'll stay in this job for eight years? I

would have said no.

I would have agreed with that, knowing you

eight years ago. Yeah.

It's just not me to do that. I've been very loyal to

the university. I've stayed here for 30 years, but I come into

1994. I quickly be you know, I'm a very loyal person. And it

would be hard for me to leave the University of Arkansas, all

my friends are here. I mean, I know so many people in all the

colleges of our campus. We have lots of wonderful people. And

especially, of course, I know a lot of people in the Walton

College. And I wouldn't want to leave, it's just not in me. I've

had lots of opportunities to do so. But I would feel I just

wouldn't feel good about it at this point. I, this is my

university, that I'm part of, this my college. And so that's

part of the reason I think it's time for me to leave. I also

think I can help Northwest Arkansas and the state as a

professor, more than I can as Dean now I've got, I've become

aware of some things I'll share some ideas of what's going on.

I was about to say for most that's probably a

counterintuitive statement. I believe it's true. I understand

for you why it may be true, but share a little more.

Sure. And so I want to say this over the next year.

As I continue to prepare for teaching and I'm already doing

research again, by the way, I was way behind on research, I

had no pipeline and I just remember I just noticed the

other day I've got to be careful now because I've got like seven

major projects going. But I do I you know if you look at if you

look at professors by citations on Google Scholar. I'm in the

top 20 at the University of Arkansas. I want to maintain

that I want, I'm 58. I'm going to turn 59 in August. I hope to

be able to be a great contributor for at least 10 more

years, maybe 12. Maybe, maybe till I'm 70 or 71, or 72, I

don't know. But tell me, Brent, when, I when I am doing terrible

in the classroom, I hope you tell me to leave. But my goal is

to be one of the top researchers in the Walton College and in the

country in supply chain management. And I having been

dean, I've seen it all. I actually know how to do it now.

I did, I did pretty well before. But I know way more about how to

do it now. And I'm young enough to where I can still do it.

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind

that you will be tremendous in the faculty role. And I'm

thrilled that you've chosen to stay as a faculty member in the

Walton College of Business. I know you're going to do some

other things too, what's what's in what's in the works? To

really drive the you know, you mentioned, continuing to advance

Northwest Arkansas and the state of Arkansas. And that's, you

know, I think so appealing to me to hear you say that.

I will I want to talk about an elephant in the

room before I get on to that,

Okay.

And the elephant is many people know, I applied to

be chancellor and I didn't get it. And I just want to say this,

and I mean it I'm not Brent knows this, and people who work

with me know this. I'm glad I didn't get it. I mean, this is

not a way of just dealing with something. There was a part of

me that was disappointed, I was ready for something new. And I

thought I had some ideas that could really advance the the

university actually some of the things I did at the college I

wanted to do at the university, it would have been very hard to

do but but I think I fully support Charles, he's doing a

great job and Terry, I'm behind them, and I will help them if

they call upon me for help. I'll be there. There's no sour

grapes. I'm really blessed in that it's just not a part of my

wiring. I think it's one of the reasons why I've been a

successful entrepreneur, I can try something, if it doesn't

work, I can go on to the next thing and I don't dwell on it, I

go to the next thing I didn't become chancellor, I was not

selected. I don't think I did as good a job in the interview

process, as my competitors did. I'm not sure that I even have

the background necessary for it. So I'm thankful. And now that it

had quite a few months, I guess almost a year since I found that

I wasn't in the running. I have discovered. wow the

opportunities are unbelievable. I mean, I've always you know,

Brent, I've always at the university as a professor,

you're allowed to do one day per week outside of the university

of consulting or working with industry or whatever. And I and

we have to fill out a conflict of interest form and come up

with a plan and fill out an outside employment form if

that's necessary. And I've done it every year I've been here.

I've always been engaged. And there's many summers. I took

note most of the summers before I was an administrator. I took

no compensation, because I wanted to be fully outside. And

I did. And in fact, I took a leave of absence one semester

with Bentonville Associates. I left the university for a few

years, gave up my tenure, because of Mercari technologies.

My software company came back in 2002. So I am an entrepreneur,

I've got things going on already. And I'm very blessed

with my network, which is off the charts incredible. Now, one

thing I'm doing again, that I think will help this will be

announced more fully soon. But, you know, we've got lots of

entrepreneurs support organizations in Northwest

Arkansas. We have the big companies here have venture

arms. We have a few venture capital companies. We've got

some private equity companies. We've got seed funding going on,

and we have small businesses. And so I'm going to be helping

bring focus to companies that fall into the retail value

chain, in Northwest Arkansas, we're going to do this through

the Northwest Arkansas Council, but I'm going to be leading that

through the council. That is, all these organizations, plug

and play, and many others are engaged in these things. But

there's no one that is bringing a focus to it. But if you look

at it, there is nothing in Northwest Arkansas, or the state

of Arkansas in my opinion, that has more brand equity, more

talent, than the retail value chain, that includes logistics,

supply chain, retail, CPG, and technology associated with that.

That's been my career here, too. It's been my research, it's been

my teaching, it's been my company's my consulting,

everything's been kind of in the retail value chain for Matt

Waller. Now, what I want to do is try to help the region

develop it further. And I'm blessed in that I can do it now.

Well, Matt, at the beginning of the podcast, I

should have introduced you as a force for good because I believe

that to be true, and I'm excited for your future. Because you are

going to be a force for good in the region. Well, one in your

family, like you have your entire life. And with your

friends, this region, this state and I actually think the world.

And in doing so and your alignment with our strategy as a

college, our strategic areas of focus, retail, supply chain

management, analytics, entrepreneurship, everything

you're doing is completely aligned with the strategy of the

Walton College. And as a faculty member doing all these things,

you're going to shine a great light on us and reflect so well

on the college. So I'm excited for your future. And, you know,

I've got to say I think I get an opportunity to thank you, I

thank you on behalf of me for what you've done for me

personally, for this college over the last eight years and

really your whole career. And I thank you on behalf of this

faculty and staff because I think every one of them would

thank you if they are sitting in this chair, I just get to be the

one that says it. And and thank you on behalf of all of our

alumni and our state. You've done an amazing job as dean, and

we're thankful that you're gonna continue to be a part of the

Walton College of Business.

That's very encouraging. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Matt.

Thanks.

On behalf of the Walton College thank you for

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