Tim Kizer thought he “was going to change the world and people.” Instead, he really enjoys “the way the world and people change me,” he said.
Now 60, Kizer is vice president of supply chain solutions for Road & Rail Services, a railroad mechanical company. He has become “open-minded” over the years, he said.
“I used to not be. (Now) I’m interested in how people have gotten to the very different thought processes than I have, not in judgment or desire to change. I’m interested in learning about people that are incredibly different than me. I’ve embraced people in my career that I probably wouldn’t have when I was younger, and that’s been very rewarding.”
Born and raised in Pine Bluff, Kizer’s “aberrant career” began in the U.S. Army after one year at the University of Central Arkansas.
“I didn’t intend to join the military,” he said. “But my sibling died unexpectedly, and so I joined. I met people who were influential in my life who taught me what it was like to lead people and truly be a servant leader.”
While stationed in Kentucky in 1991, Kizer completed his degree in history and political science at the University of Louisville.
Afterward his career included managing a cruise ship business and living in Montana before attending graduate school in creative writing at the University of Arkansas. He went because the UA librarian was the brother of his favorite writer, Jim Harrison, and Harrison’s manuscripts were stored there. Kizer jokes he never left Fayetteville because he rented a house from his now wife, Sandy. “She put an ad in the paper and found a husband.”
To make ends meet Kizer built decks and taught school in West Fork. In 1995 he became technology specialist at the UA. In 1999 he became managing director of the Walton College’s Information Technology Research Center before being named director of the Center for Management and Executive Development. He also had a side business consulting Walmart vendors. In 2002 Kizer was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.
In 2005 Kizer joined the board of the NASDAQ traded Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (AERT). He founded sustainable energy company AgEnergy Solutions & Green Products Group in 2006 and helped develop a sustainable product for the oil and gas industry.
“I really like starting things at the time and was pretty good at it,” he said. “I had the right risk level to get them started.”
When a heart problem caused him to reassess life, he took time off and consulted railroad businesses, helping expand their use of rail service.
“That really started career No. 2 for me as I was licking my wounds from feeling bad about my heart procedure,” he said.
In 2018 Kizer joined Watco Supply Chain Services, and in 2020 he became executive vice president of the Louisville Riverport Authority, a public facility of 3,000 acres, 7,000 jobs and 13 miles of railroad.
He’s been in his existing position since June 2024. He’s lived in Northwest Arkansas throughout his career.
“I consider myself a supply-chain-oriented industrial development guy finding opportunities to meld the needs of the shipper, the community (and) the motor transportation together,” he said.
Thirty years ago, Kizer developed a philosophy he calls “‘LTMSR,’ or ‘long-term mutually satisfying relationships,’” which has “affected me in a profound way in how I approach business and the way I approach almost everything.” It applies not just to financial rewards but also is “about people fulfilling their vision.”
A self-described outdoorsman and conservationist, Kizer is passionate about natural resource conservation.
In life and his conservation work, he’s never forgotten something Jim Harrison said: “Easy access means diminished quality.” In nature, “work a little bit harder, go another mile and you’ll see something” that other people don’t get to see. That also applies “when things get tough in life. Those [experiences] that are easy, they’re not the ones that build the most character and leave the most memories.”
Kizer trains hunting dogs, enjoys driving his RV to music festivals with Sandy and “spends as much of my time consuming literature as I can.”