Bentonville chamber leader Ashley Wardlow resigns

Ashley Wardlow, interim president and chief executive of the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday (Oct. 17) that she is resigning. Her last day is Dec. 8.

Wardlow stepped into the job in early 2022 following the resignation of Graham Cobb. The Bentonville chamber named Cobb its top executive in October 2017. Before that, he was COO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce for four years.

In an email Tuesday, Wardlow said she had accepted a job as executive director of another organization but did not disclose further details.

Wardlow was a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2022. She joined the chamber in 2020 as executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit. Shortly before starting as the chamber’s interim CEO, the chamber board promoted her to executive vice president in late 2021.

Before joining the chamber, Wardlow was a development officer at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville for about four years. She developed and implemented the Bentonville museum’s inaugural corporate engagement strategy, instituted an annual corporate dinner co-hosted by Alice Walton and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and cultivated philanthropic relationships in the Northwest Arkansas and Dallas areas.

In 2013, she became a donor relations manager at United Way of Northwest Arkansas. She was promoted to senior manager of donor relations before leading the organization’s five-county workplace campaign.

In 2012, she relocated to Northwest Arkansas from Waco, Texas, to help her mother build her business.