RUTH H. WHITNEY is the founder and CEO of inVeritas. Ruth serves as a strategic advisor to clients based on over 25 years of expertise in law, government, politics and public opinion. She has been privileged to advise Global 500 companies, prominent professional services firms, state and federal governments, law firms, nonprofit corporations and industry associations.

Ruth earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association and is admitted to practice in Arkansas and the U.S. District Courts in Arkansas. Ruth has also been admitted pro hac vice in various jurisdictions in the course of her service as a national jury consultant.

Before founding inVeritas, Ruth built and managed the Arkansas office of Global Strategy Group where she specialized in executing winning campaigns in the public and private sectors. Prior to joining GSG, Ruth served as counsel and chief of staff to Attorney General Mike Beebe and developed professional relationships with attorneys general across the country. Ruth has extensive legal and management experience, including over 10 years as a healthcare and administrative lawyer with the Arkansas Department of Human Services and as Counsel to Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard.

Ruth has served as a guest writer to Talk Business and currently serves on a number of boards of directors including the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce; Arkansas Cinema Society; Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance; New Design School; and Little Red River Foundation. Ruth serves on the advisory board of NanoMech Inc., a nanomanufacturing innovation and product development firm. She also serves her state and community as a member of Leadership Arkansas, Accelerate Arkansas and the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

20+ years

11-15 years

Arkansas College Media Award winner for photo and print
Arkansas Business 30 under 30
National Junior Chamber President's Medal of Honor winner and Ambassador to Japan
Arkansas Junior Chamber Star Award

Our representation for energy and insurance clients keeps us close to the Insurance and Commerce Committees. Our pharmaceutical and other health related clients keep us close to the Public Health Committees. However, we regularly have bills in other committees and can successfully lobby the entire house and senate.

We have relationships all over our state government. If we don't know someone already we will find an introduction. We specialize in cultivating long term relationships with people and always remain loyal to our friends and those that help us.

My father returned home to Harrison, Arkansas after playing for the Denver Broncos for a few years and began working as a sales rep for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Over the next decade he worked his way up to VP of marketing. In 1986 I was 8 years old and he was asked to be something called a "lobbyist". I immediately was in love. I knew at eight years old that I wanted to be a lobbyist when I grew up. Believe it or not I planned my life accordingly.

In the early 90's the newspapers had painted a target on all of the lobbyists in Arkansas. Dad had a heated exchange with a legislator and an editorialist took some liberties with article. I knew then that I wanted to join the media before lobbying in order to avoid anything like that. In high school, I managed the local GNC, volunteered for every campaign that I could and took summer work at the capitol as a driver and staffer for our Treasurer and Attorney General. I took some journalism courses and immediately got a job as a reporter when I started college.

After college I was an inaugural staff member for Governor Mike Beebe. After serving as a policy adviser I left to join my father's firm, Phillips Management and Consulting Service. After having a very successful run under a Democratic administration, we had a very smooth transition into the next Republican administration with myself serving on incoming Governor Asa Hutchinson's transition team in the areas of the Department of Human Services and the Department of Information Systems.
We love our job. Neither my father nor myself plan to retire. We want to lobby as long as we can.

In 2009 I started a company called LobbyUp. I was disappointed with the only bill tracking service available in Arkansas so I built my own. We now have over 50,000 users in 14 states and we'll continue to add states until we are in all 50 and congress. We have a free mobile app for android and ios.