History

It all began with a vision.

In 1998, members of the business community and John Brown University had a vision for two world-class centers: one for marriage and families and one for business leadership. Today that vision has been achieved through The Center for Relationship Enrichment & The Soderquist Center for Leadership & Ethics. Our Center was founded in honor of Donald G. Soderquist, retired Chief Operating Officer of Walmart Stores, Inc. Don has always had a passion for developing leaders from a foundation of core values. His philosophy and passion continues to guide us today.

The Center started in a small house off the campus of John Brown University with just a handful of team members. Initially, we focused on large-scale seminars and events, bringing world renowned leaders to Northwest Arkansas to speak. As we re-examined how we went about accomplishing our mission, we began to realize that we were not impacting lives the way we set out to. We needed to reevaluate.

That’s when The Soderquist Family Foundation purchased Greystone Estate in Rogers, Arkansas to serve as our executive retreat center. Sleeping only 15 guests at a time, the new facility allowed us to host groups on a smaller, more personal scale. Today, we are “equipping people with the transformational power of ethical leadership” more effectively than ever.

And The Soderquist Center has certainly grown. We now have 25 people with office and meeting space on the campus of John Brown University, two state-of-the-art challenge courses—BaseCamp and BaseCamp2—and customers and partners across the globe.