Ron Hubbard - Lettermen's Spotlight

Men's Basketball

Lettermen’s Spotlight: Ron Hubbard

LITTLE ROCK – A 1967 graduate of Little Rock University, Ron Hubbard played basketball for head coaches Bill Ballard and Cleve Branscum from 1962-66 . Hubbard graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration before eventually enjoying a nearly 30-year career with Winrock International.
 
Hubbard, who retired as senior vice president for operations at Winrock International in 2014, began his career with the renowned nonprofit in 1986. Hubbard's connection to Winrock actually began when he was 15 years old, working at Winrock Farms near his home in Casa, Ark.
 
Hubbard attended Casa High School and graduated with a senior class of 18 students. He was a 6-5 center who chose to play basketball at Little Rock University over a host of other in-state schools.
 
Currently retired and living in London, Ark., Hubbard is a Little Rock basketball season ticket holder who attends as many games as he can. Inspired by an interest from one of his sons, he also raises rodeo bulls on his farm just south of Petit Jean Mtn.
 
He and his wife Phyllis have five children, 10 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
 
How did you decide to attend Little Rock University?
 
They started their athletic program, I think, the year before. They had a full scholarship offer. I had originally committed to go to Arkansas Tech. Coach Ballard recruited me my entire senior year of high school. I was convinced I would get some early playing time by going to Little Rock University, so that was the primary reason.
 
Playing time, but also the respect I had for Coach Ballard. He was a good recruiter and a good basketball coach. I felt like I could relate to Coach Ballard more so than some of the other coaches that had offered me. Nothing against the other coaches. I had offers from all eight AIC schools – Ouachita Baptist, Henderson, etc. – and I had met each of those coaches.
 
What was your experience like at Little Rock University?
 
I loved it. The first year was tough. The athletic program, like I said, was just getting started. When the university started giving scholarships to basketball players and eventually baseball players, the academic staff at Little Rock University was not thrilled. Some of the instructors, I would not say they intentionally made it hard on us, but they certainly did not cut us any slack. Our scholarship money could have been put toward a student and academic purposes rather than someone bouncing a basketball.
 
Little Rock University, then and now, was known for its strong academics. I believe it was rated second only to Hendrix in the state. It was a strong, strong academic school. A degree from Little Rock University carried some weight.
 
What was your major? How did you choose it?
 
Bachelor's degree in business administration. I started out majoring in accounting. My senior year, my academic advisor, Dr. Lloyd Bowie, said I just didn't strike him as being an accountant. At any rate, I already had most of the credits for the B.B.A. So I got a minor in accounting and majored in business administration.
 
Of course, for the first year after I graduated from LRU, when I went to apply for jobs it was always, "Accounting. Accounting. Accounting." (laughs).
 
What is your working life like now?
 
I retired completely three years ago. Before retirement, I was working for a large nonprofit, Winrock International. I went to work for them in April of 1986 and by '88 I was gone on international trips more than a third of the time. The first trip I took was to Africa – five countries in Africa in six weeks – and then later started in Southeast Asia. I was actually in Pakistan when I decided to retire.
 
I planned to retire earlier. Winrock talked me into staying on through a CEO transition. The CEO that had been my boss was retiring and they were hiring someone new. The board asked me to stay on and overlap with the new CEO for a year as a senior advisor. So, I stayed most of that year and then I decided if I was going to retire, I wanted to fully retire.
 
Describe what work was like at Winrock International.
 
Winthrop Rockefeller founded The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute for Livestock Development in 1973.  In 1985 the organization merged with two other nonprofits founded by various members of the Rockefeller family. The merged organization became Winrock International.  Winrock International was improving the lives –  food and financial security – of people in the poorest of the poor countries around the world. Later we got involved in environmental and social issues.
 
When I retired, we were working in more than 60 countries around the world and I had the privilege of traveling to just about all of them, some of them multiple times. Winrock had regional offices in Manilla, China, India and Brazil.
 
Were there any locations that were your favorites to visit?
 
I loved the Russia Far East. You were eight time zones away from Moscow, and the farther you get away from Moscow the warmer and friendlier the people are. They are not suspicious of Americans being there.
 
I love Brazil. My wife and I traveled to a coastal city called Salvador. That is where the Brazilians go to vacation, so it is a beautiful town. I was able to tour Egypt with my wife. We toured the Pyramids of Giza by camelback and took a tour of the Nile River at night. We also visited the Taj Mahal. All three places were beautiful.
 
Are there any specific projects from your time at Winrock that stand out?
 
One was in the prevention of trafficking women and children. I was able to visit an orphanage in Cambodia. Winrock was supporting a training center for young women who had been rescued from sex trafficking. We were not the ones who rescued them, but once they were rescued then we would set up different types of training so they would have a vocation to go into so they could earn wages to support them and possibly their children.
 
There were agricultural development projects in Africa where we were teaching better agricultural practices, not for export but just to provide food and support for their families. You could actually see in a five-year period the progress that had been made. It was not something you had to wait 10 or 15 years to see if we were successful.
 
Describe your work in government relations.
 
Now I am on the board of directors for Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas. There are four Farm Credit associations in Arkansas. On the Western Arkansas board, I am the chair of the legislative and public relations committee. The four associations in Arkansas decided a few years back that we needed to have a more active role on the national level influencing policies regarding agriculture and rural Arkansas. So, we formed a statewide legislative and public advocacy committee, which I chair. I am in and out of Washington, D.C., three or four times per year.
 
What do you miss most about your time as a student-athlete?
 
What I miss most is the camaraderie. For the first two years we took our lumps. Coach Ballard was just developing the program, but in his third year he recruited five players that were All-State. I was All-State two years prior. By year three, we had molded into a very competitive team.
 
What advice do you have for graduating students?
 
You need to choose a profession you think you will enjoy. I know everyone would like the big bucks and some might chase positions because of the salaries they offer, but I've found in my professional career that I was doing things that I thoroughly enjoyed doing. I was working for an organization that had a mission that I believed in. They were very people-oriented. They not only tried to improve the lives of people around the world, but also of their employees.
 
So look at an organization's culture. What is their mission? What do they do? Make sure that is something that fits with you professionally and personally.
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