Our Team

The Arkansas Institutional Fund is professionally managed by Cimarron Capital, LLC.

Michael Tharp, CFA

Managing Director
Mike Tharp served as the President of the Oklahoma Capital Investment Board from 1994 to 2000 and Vice President from 1989. His expertise includes creating and managing investment programs for institutional investors. Prior to co-founding Cimarron as a separate entity in 2002, Mr. Tharp was a Vice President and Private Equity Specialist for Prudential. He serves as the point person for Cimarron's Arkansas fund of funds program.

Mr. Tharp holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute as well as the Oklahoma Society of Financial Analysts. He has served as the Program Chairman for the Institutional Limited Partners' Association and as National Board Member and Treasurer of the Council of Development Finance Agencies. He earned his undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University and his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin.

Robert Heard

Managing Director
In 1994 Robert Heard formed Edge Development Capital, the predecessor to Cimarron, specializing in partnership investing. Edge serves as fund manager of Cimarron Business Capital, LLC, and, through an affiliate, as manager of the Oklahoma Capital Investment Board.

Mr. Heard served as a founding director of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds and was an author of the National Governors' Association study on " The Experience of States with Seed and Venture Capital." He sits on the Advisory Committees of numerous venture capital funds and is a member of the national advisory committee of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer.

Mr. Heard earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and his Masters of Business Administration from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.