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News Release
Returning Little Rock Resident Opens New Research and Development Center
LITTLE ROCK, AR - Thursday, June 1, 2006
The first day of June marks the day Little Rock resident Keith Wheeler comes full circle. Ten years ago he left his hometown for an engineering career at ARMA Design in San Diego, California. Come first of June, Wheeler celebrates a homecoming of sorts with the opening of the ARMA Design Arkansas Research and Development Center in downtown Little Rock.
As general manager of the new ARMA division, Wheeler, 36, solves a personal dilemma. He loves working for ARMA Design. He loves his Arkansas hometown. Since he couldn’t bring Little Rock to his job in California, he brought his job to Little Rock.
ARMA Design Arkansas Research and Development Center is located in the heart of downtown Little Rock in the Metropolitan National bank Tower. Wheeler is recruiting people with a wide range of technical expertise.
"At first, we planned the Arkansas office to support the home office with projects, but there is a lot of interest in us locally, so we’ll be working with businesses in the area from the beginning," says Wheeler.
Raised in Little Rock, Wheeler earned a BS degree in computer engineering from University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Researching career options, he found ARMA Design on the Internet. The engineering firm looked like a company he’d like to work for so he contacted owner Alex McKay and his relationship with ARMA began. He started supporting projects long distance on a "freelance" basis. Then, in 1996, he moved to San Diego to work fulltime. Two years later, he married his wife Stephanie. Their son James was born in 2000, and by the time their son was a year old, they decided Little Rock was where they wanted to raise their family.
"Little Rock is perfect. It’s big enough to have to have the symphony and theater and other things to experience, but not so big that you get lost. And the woods are right there so you can hike, fish, camp, mountain bike, whatever you want to do,” explains Wheeler, adding with a grin that "I have family in Little Rock and Stephanie and I realized early on how helpful living near family can be when you have children."
In 2001, Wheeler moved his family home to pursue an MBA at University of Arkansas at Little Rock. All the while, he has continued to work long distance for ARMA Design. With only one class left, he’s ready to work fulltime—and ARMA Design is ready to contribute to Arkansas businesses.
"We’re excited to grow our company in Little Rock. The area has an attractive business climate, a good workforce and reasonable costs. With Keith living in Little Rock, it’s a win-win situation all around," says Alex McKay, ARMA Design President and CEO.
Wheeler is just as much of an ARMA fan as the company is for him.
"ARMA turned out to be the right company for me. It’s great from the top down. And variety of work keeps it fun. I have engineering friends who work for years on the same project, or only work on a portion of the projects. Because of the nature of ARMA’s market and capabilities, there are so many different technologies on different projects for different market segments and different utilities. Things move quickly. This makes it interesting from a business perspective, too," says Wheeler.
ARMA Design takes on consumer, industrial and commercial projects at every phase, from design to development to manufacture, depending on client needs. "The products we create vary, from hand-held consumer devices like game controllers to kiosks for major retailers, including Wal-Mart. We may work on the entire final product or just the circuit board that goes into it," Wheeler explains.
"We know a good thing when we see it — and Keith is it. He’s talented, knowledgeable and a good problem-solver. We’re also sold on Arkansas, so we’re thrilled to have both Keith and our Arkansas research and development center in Little Rock," says Alex McKay, ARMA president and CEO.
About ARMA Design:
ARMA Design is an electronic design and manufacturing firm that provides turnkey product design and development services as well as manufacturing capabilities. Founded in San Diego in 1990 by Alex McKay, ARMA’s mission is to help companies with commercial, consumer and industrial applications turn ideas into reality. For information about ARMA Design, visit www.armanet.com or call 501.255.7716.
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