Alice Bishop.

Meandering Career Path Leads to Mall Management

ADD ALICE BISHOP TO THE list of executives who successfully made career moves despite naysaying advice.

Bishop oversees a staff of 30 as general manager of Fayetteville's Northwest Arkansas Mall, with more than 800,000 SF and total annual sales of $252 million.

The project, owned by Macerich Co. of Santa Monica, Calif., is among the largest in Arkansas. Under her watch, annual revenue growth at the mall has averaged nearly 20 percent during the past three years.

Bishop has done OK after having disregarded counsel not to pursue her interest in real estate management because she had no experience.

To battle her way into the management training program with Simon Properties Group of Indianapolis, Bishop took a part-time job working for Casual Corner to get retailing experience. After five years of human resources work for Simon Properties, she became an assistant mall manager in 1992.

Less than a year later, Bishop was named general manager of the 600,000-SF Oakwood Mall in Enid, Okla., a post she held until coming to Northwest Arkansas Mall in 1996.

Her meandering career path began after she graduated in 1978 from Abilene Christian University in Texas with a bachelor's degree in vocational home economics. Bishop worked as a home economist with West Texas Utilities Co. while getting her master's degree in management and human relations at Abilene Christian.

After a six-year stint with West Texas Utilities, she left to become assistant personnel director at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, and, in 1987, she joined Simon Properties as field human resources manager.

Her civic posts include board memberships with the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Arts Center of the Ozarks and Junior League of Northwest Arkansas. Her interest in community work also extends to politics.

"I've been thinking about running for City Council, but people tell me I've lost my mind," Bishop said.