Mr. Bradbury is Chief Operating Officer and Director of Stephens Inc., a full service investment banking firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas. He joined the Firm in 1972 and has been COO of Stephens Inc. since 1995. Mr. Bradbury took a hiatus from Stephens Inc. in 1985 to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Worthen Banking Corporation, a public company, a post he held until 1995.
In the early part of this 10-year assignment at Worthen, Mr. Bradbury and his new management team worked through capital draining securities losses and bad loans. The successful result for the latter half of that decade was a series of acquisitions by Worthen that helped Mr. Bradbury and team to ultimately engineer a sale of the banking group at more than twice its book value, after which he returned to Stephens Inc.
Throughout his career at Stephens, Mr. Bradbury has worked on hundreds of key investment banking transactions as well as private investments on behalf of the Stephens family and Stephens Inc. Currently, in his leadership position, Mr. Bradbury works with Chairman, President and CEO, Warren Stephens, in the development and execution of strategic initiatives for the Firm's future. These include the continued expansion of the Stephens Private Client Group, the growth of Stephens Investment Management Group, and the continued development of the Stephens Capital Markets Group, which includes investment banking, research, and institutional sales.
Mr. Bradbury is and has been active in the Arts and he and his wife Chucki are avid collectors of 19th and 20th century and contemporary works on paper. In 1993, President Clinton appointed him to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities on which he served until 2000. Mr. Bradbury is a former Director of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
Other charitable and voluntary activities in which he has been involved include: Chairman of the Arkansas State Board of Higher Education; Chairman of the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Board; President of the Arkansas Arts Center Board of Trustees; Chairman of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce; Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Vincent Health System; and the Dean's Executive Advisory Board, Walton College, University of Arkansas.
Mr. Bradbury holds an undergraduate degree in Finance and a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Arkansas. He and Mrs. Bradbury have two sons: Spencer and Curt III.
Marie Spitzberg's own personal role in interfaith understanding and civic activity establishes the standard for evaluating lifetime accomplishment. Her decades of exemplary voluntary service through her teaching at Temple B'nai Israel, activity through the St. Vincent and Baptist Hospital Auxiliaries, leadership in Scouting, tutoring in the use of computers by seniors through Seniornet, service at the Little Rock Visitor's Bureau and participation at the Shepherd Center illustrate the lifetime achievement that The Marie is intended to celebrate.