About Us

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs — those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward. Driven by our belief that High-Impact Entrepreneurs transform economies, Endeavor is on a mission to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world.

Endeavor creates a Multiplier Effect by inspiring high-growth founders to dream bigger, supporting and investing in them to scale faster, and providing a platform to pay it forward — thereby compounding their individual impact.

To sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way, Endeavor created Endeavor Catalyst — a rules-based, co-investment fund, set up to invest in the same High-Impact Entrepreneurs that Endeavor supports. Today, Endeavor Catalyst is among the world’s top early-stage funders of startups-turned $1B+ companies (“Unicorns”) outside of the U.S. and China.

Regional Board Members

Our regional board represents a curated group of business leaders and entrepreneurs from a variety of industries and sectors who guide the organization’s mission and growth. See a snapshot of our local board members below.

Elise Mitchell

Founder + Chairwoman of Mitchell Communications

Elise the founder of three companies -- two in leadership development, one in public relations. Most notably, she is founder and chairman of Mitchell Communications Group, one of the top 10 fastest-growing public relations firms globally and a two-time Inc. 500/5000 fastest growing company. The firm has twice been named Agency of the Year by PR Week and The Holmes Report. Under her leadership, the agency grew more than 500% in five years. At the end of 2012, Elise sold her firm to Dentsu, Inc., the world’s largest ad agency, based in Tokyo, Japan. She led the successful integration of her firm over a five-year period in a newly established global parent company, Dentsu Aegis Network. Today, Elise advises clients through her own leadership and business consultancy and enjoys riding motorcycles with her husband.

Todd Simmons

CEO + Vice Chairman, Simmons Foods

Todd Simmons is the CEO and Vice Chairman of Simmons Foods. He began working at Simmons in 1990 was promoted to CEO and Vice Chairman in 2012. In 2016, he was selected as one of 10 local business leaders in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s C-Suite Awards. Todd is also a partner of Natural Capital, which launched in 2019. Todd has over 25 years of operating and investing experience in the Heartland. He is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in Business Management.

Michael Guptan

CFO US Financial Services; Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at Walmart

Michael currently leads corporate development and M&A for Walmart. He has over 20 years of corporate development, strategy, and venture investment experience. Prior to Walmart, Michael worked with Dell Technologies as the head of corporate development and venture investments for its Software, Services, and Security businesses and Chief Strategy Officer for DXC Technology. He has also worked as a technology investment banker and spent time early in his career with McKinsey & Company. Michael holds an MBA from The Wharton School.

Carl George

President & Co-CEO at George’s Inc.

Carl is the fourth generation to lead the privately owned and operated poultry company, George’s Inc., and has worked at the family company since the age of 14. Carl graduated from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and oversees processing and live production alongside his twin brother and Co-CEO Charles. In addition to his executive responsibilities at George’s Inc., Carl sits on the Board of the National Chicken Council.

Clete Brewer

Managing Partner at New Road Capital Ventures

Clete Brewer is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at NewRoad Capital Partners that seeks to provide growth equity funding to innovative companies with proven demand driven business models. He brings more than 30 years’ experience leading successful startups and publicly traded companies that broadly encompass the service industry, retail, franchising, manufacturing, logistics, and private equity. Prior to co-founding NewRoad Capital Partners in 2013 he served as Chairman of BlueInGreen, a water Technology disruptor for the environmental treatment of water and wastewater. Before BlueInGreen, he was President and co-owner of Sport Clips, Inc. Under his leadership the Sport Clips, Inc. grew from 42 franchised stores to more than 675 stores nationwide. Clete currently serves on the boards of several high-growth companies, the Executive Advisory Board at the Sam Walton College of Business, and Endeavor NW Arkansas.

He graduated from the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in 1987 with a BSBA in Finance.

Barbara Marchini-Ellis

Partner, Ernst & Young

Barbara is an experienced global client-serving partner, having worked with a variety of multinational clients for over 30 years. Barbara is currently the global coordinating partner for Walmart and is a member of the Facebook audit team. Barbara has served as a global coordinating partner for Google (currently known as Alphabet) and Juniper networks, and also served as an engagement partner on Hewlett Packard (HP) from 2001-2010. Her combined experiences have provided her the opportunity to build an extensive background in virtually all aspects of the technology industry, including internet advertising and retailing, IT services, software, and a wide spectrum of consumer and commercial hardware offerings. Barbara has also served Life Sciences clients with recent roles on both the Amgen and Gilead engagements and is also currently working with McKesson. Barbara is a graduate of UC Berkeley and has been married to her husband, Ford, for over 25 years with two children.

Ben Stewart

Executive Director and Senior Program Manager, Tulsa Remote, George Kaiser Family Foundation

Ben Stewart works on talent initiatives at GKFF. Prior to joining GKFF in 2010, Mr. Stewart worked in venture capital for the Oklahoma Life Sciences Fund, lived abroad in Argentina, and worked with social entrepreneurship groups Ashoka and Endeavor. A Tulsa native, he is a 2007 graduate from the Honors College at the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in international business, entrepreneurship and Spanish.

Candice Matthews Brackeen

Founder and CEO, Lightship Foundation

Candice Matthews Brackeen is a General Partner at Lightship Capital, the Cincinnati-based firm investing in the most remarkable innovators and ecosystems across the nation with a focus on CPG, E-Commerce, Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, and Healthtech.

Candice is also Executive Director and Founder of Lightship Foundation, an impact-driven organization enabling growth within the minority innovation economy. Her dedication to moving inclusion in innovation forward is also reflected in her advisory roles across numerous organizations including the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium for NASA, where she leads diversity of thought as the United States of America harnesses and accelerates technology toward a sustainable return of humans to the Moon’s surface.

She also serves on the Cincinnati Innovation District Advisory Council, the Endeavor Northwest Arkansas Board of Directors, and is a University of Cincinnati Kautz Uible Fellow.

Andy Murray

CEO, bigQUEST

Andy is a 35 year Retail & CPG marketing expert with a strong understanding of global trends, how to develop strong supplier-retailer partnerships, and leading customer-centric innovation.

His experience includes 10 years at Procter & Gamble of which culminated in serving on the original Walmart-P&G Customer Team which lead him to Fayetteville Arkansas.

After P&G he launched and grew the first Shopper Marketing Agency, Saatchi & Saatchi X which expanded to operate in 22 countries around the world serving both top CPG brands and retailers.

He then joined Walmart U.S. as SVP of Marketing in 2013 where he lead game changing initiatives such as Green-light-a-Vet, Retail Media programs, Advertising and Store Experience.

In 2016 he joined Walmart’s ASDA Grocery Retailer in the U.K. and for the next four years served on the executive team as Chief Customer Officer until 2020. In that role he lead several break through programs in supplier and customer innovation.

After repatriating from the U.K. Andy has been active in advising both CPG and Retailers on how to launch and land customer centric innovation through his company bigQUEST as well as helping academia develop more thought leadership in this area through his work with University College London and the University of Arkansas where he is Founder and Chairman of the Customer Centric Leadership Initiative.

In 2014 Andy was inducted into the P2Pi Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame.

Regional Team

The 500 staff in the Endeavor network operate as a unified organization with the same mission. The Endeavor Heartland network welcomes opportunities to work with one another across borders and dedicates itself to facilitating valuable connections among our network. Once an Endeavor Entrepreneur is selected, they gain access to a dedicated and vibrant global network of peer and expert support that transcends borders, helping them reach scale, and multiplying their impact in their local ecosystems and beyond.

Canem Arkan

Managing Director

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, raised in Baghdad, Iraq, and New York, NY, Canem Arkan has spent almost 20 years in finance. She launched Endeavor's Northwest Arkansas chapter in March 2019 as the founding executive director. Established in 1997, Endeavor is leading the global high-growth entrepreneurship movement to drive economic impact and job creation by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best entrepreneurs around the world. To date, Endeavor has screened more than 60,000 individuals and selected more than 2,100 founders leading over 1,300 scale-up companies.

Prior to launching Endeavor NWA, Canem was a managing director at Axonic Capital, a New York-based structured credit and asset management fund with over $3 billion under management. She came to that role after spending ten years at Goldman Sachs within the Structured Products Group. She focused on risk management and balance sheet optimization across residential, commercial, and consumer loans and securities for banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions.

Currently, Canem supports organizations focused on accelerating entrepreneurship and economic impact in Arkansas, including participating in the New Venture Development Mentor Weekend, as well as serving as a pitch adviser for the Arkansas I-Fund accelerator and the SCALE Challenge for the Center for Advancing Innovation. She has been a member of the Northwest Arkansas Executive Council for the past two years and was recently invited to become a member of the Arkansas Executive Forum. Additionally, as a food allergy parent, she served on the board of the Food Allergy Fund a start-up nonprofit that researches the underlying causes and improves treatments for life-threatening food allergies.

Canem received her B.A. in Economics and Communications, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. When she is not supporting high-impact entrepreneurs, you can find her hiking or biking with her two energetic boys and her husband in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Daniel Briggs

Manager, Entrepreneur Selection & Growth — Tulsa

Daniel graduated from Oklahoma State University where he majored in Finance. He spent the first two years of his career at Gateway Mortgage Group in Tulsa where he worked with the Default Mortgage Division and in Investor Accounting. In 2018, Daniel was recruited to Bridge Risk Management where he worked as a consultant, auditor, and compliance leader for a variety of clientele ranging from 100+-year-old financial institutions to fintech startups. Daniel is an involved member of 36 Degrees North.

Shawn Morris

Manager, Entrepreneur Selection & Growth— NWA

Shawn studied finance at the University of Arkansas and jumped directly into the startup world playing an instrumental role within operations in two early-stage companies, Givington's and Easybins, a 3PL and an online grocery store respectively. After that, he managed supply chain operations in the produce department at Walmart. His most recent role was as the Director of Replenishment for Arena Group. He lives in South Fayetteville with his wife, Ragan, and their son, Miller.

Kalei Reil

Digital Marketing Associate — Tulsa

Kalei is a 2022 graduate from the University of Oklahoma, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations with a minor in Film and Media Studies. She is motivated by purpose-driven work and has a passion for using storytelling and strategic communications as methods to create positive social impact. She joined the Endeavor Heartland team in June 2022 as a Tulsa Service Year fellow and assists with marketing and ScaleUp operations. When she’s not working, Kalei enjoys going to concerts, watching movies, and traveling.