# Conway Corporation Project Stratus NDAs The confidentiality architecture around [[Project Stratus]] on the Conway Corporation side, produced in Conway Corporation's 2026-05-29 [[2026-05 Conway Corporation Produces Project Stratus Records|Production 001]]. Two distinct non-disclosure tracks appear: (1) a **corporate** Confidentiality Agreement between [[Conway Corporation]] and the engineering firm [[Black & Veatch]] governing "Effluent Quality and Conveyance for Project Stratus," and (2) **individual** Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements that Conway Corporation staff signed with a developer-side entity named **[[Spark Innovations, LLC]]** as a condition of joining the project team. The Spark Innovations name — distinct from the MOU's developer of record [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] — is a new datapoint on the corpus's unresolved developer-identity question ([[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]]). ## What's inside | File | Description | |---|---| | `PROD-002_NDA - Project Stratus Executed.pdf` | The executed **Confidentiality Agreement between [[Black & Veatch]] and [[Conway Corporation]]** ("Conway Corporation, an Arkansas not-for-profit corporation"), 6 pages, image-only (OCR'd). Purpose: "discussions relating to **Effluent Quality and Conveyance for Project Stratus**." Signed for Black & Veatch by **Derek L. Cambridge** (digital signature dated `2025.05.05 10:13:24`). Two-year term; Arkansas governing law. Notice block routes to "Conway Corporation … Attn: **Bret Carroll, CEO**, 650 Locust St., Conway, AR 72034" (see [[Brett Carroll]]). | | `PROD-013_Zach Gardner NDA 10-14-25.pdf` | A **Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement** between "**Spark Innovations, LLC**, for itself and its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates ('Company')" and the Participant — Conway Corporation's **[[Zach Gardner]]** (signed 2025-10-14). **New York** governing law; five-year confidentiality term. 2 pages, OCR'd. | | `PROD-012_10-15-2025_RE_ Project Stratus - NDA.msg` | [[Mark Ferguson]] (Conway Corporation Water Systems Senior Engineer) to [[Corey Parks]] (CDC), 2025-10-15: "We've had some personnel changes at Conway Corp. **Zach Gardner** will be assisting on Project Stratus moving forward, so I had him complete an NDA." The thread tail (2024-08-21) shows the earliest NDA was for **Lee Tedford**, also Conway Corporation. | | `PROD-014_10-21-2025_RE_ Project Stratus - NDA.msg` | The 2025-10-21 continuation: Ferguson confirms "please include Zach on future engineering correspondence," gives Gardner's title — **Environmental Coordinator** (`[email protected]`) — and Parks relays it "to our folks" / "the company." | ## Key takeaways - **The executed NDA is Conway Corporation ↔ [[Black & Veatch]], for effluent cooling.** Its stated Purpose — "discussions relating to **Effluent Quality and Conveyance for Project Stratus**" — confirms at Tier-1 that the treated-effluent cooling-water supply (Tupelo Bayou WWTP effluent piped to the data center) was under active engineering evaluation, and that Black & Veatch is the firm doing it. See [[Black & Veatch Effluent-Cooling Engineering for Project Stratus]] and [[Tupelo Bayou Treated-Effluent Cooling]]. - **A new developer-side entity name: [[Spark Innovations, LLC]].** The individual staff NDAs name the project sponsor as "Spark Innovations, LLC … for itself and its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates ('Company')," governed by **New York** law. The MOU's developer of record is "[[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]]," a **Delaware** shell organized by [[Michael Montfort]]. **The record does not establish the relationship between Spark Innovations, LLC and Forgelight Ventures, LLC** — whether they are the same enterprise, a parent/affiliate pairing, or a separate site-selection entity fronting the NDA process. This is a new lead for the developer-identity question; see Open questions and [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend|T003]]. - **The NDA discipline reached down to individual utility staff and predates the public project by months.** Per the [[Project Stratus Utilities Meetings and Site Visit|Oct 2, 2024 site-visit invite]], Corey Parks instructed recipients to "share with any additional folks who need to be involved **once they've signed the required NDA**." The earliest NDA in this production (Lee Tedford) is dated 2024-08-21 — roughly seven months before the April 1, 2025 public Council MOU vote. - **This corroborates the corpus's documentary-secrecy pattern.** A signed NDA on the municipal-utility side parallels the [[Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce]] NDA admission at [[The Port of Little Rock Data Center|Project Boar]] and the trade-secret framing throughout the Conway record. The cooling-water engineering for a public utility serving a $1B+ project was conducted under mutual NDA with both the engineer and the developer. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Mark Ferguson]] — Conway Corporation Water Systems Senior Engineer, P.E.; administered the staff NDAs. - [[Zach Gardner]] — Conway Corporation Environmental Coordinator; signed the Spark Innovations MNDA 2025-10-14. - [[Corey Parks]] — Chief Economic Development Officer, [[Conway Development Corporation]]; relayed signed NDAs "to the company." - [[Brett Carroll]] — Conway Corporation CEO (the executed Black & Veatch NDA renders the name "Bret Carroll, CEO"). - Lee Tedford, Brett McDaniel — Conway Corporation (earlier NDA / clean-copy handling, Aug 2024). See [[Brett McDaniel]]. - [[Black & Veatch]] — counterparty to the executed Conway Corporation effluent-engineering NDA (signatory Derek L. Cambridge). - [[Spark Innovations, LLC]] — developer-side "Company" on the individual staff MNDAs. ## Concepts invoked - [[Project Stratus]] — the Conway data-center project codename. - [[Tupelo Bayou Treated-Effluent Cooling]] — the subject matter of the Black & Veatch NDA. ## Events documented - [[2024-10 Project Stratus Utilities Site Visit]] — the site visit whose access was NDA-gated. - [[2026-05 Conway Corporation Produces Project Stratus Records]] — this production. ## Cross-references - [[Black & Veatch Effluent-Cooling Engineering for Project Stratus]] — the engineering work the corporate NDA covers. - [[Project Stratus Utilities Meetings and Site Visit]] — the NDA-gated coordination. - [[T003 - Shell-LLC Principal Attribution for Forgelight and Willowbend]] — the developer-identity question to which Spark Innovations, LLC is a new input. - [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]] — the MOU developer of record. ## Open questions / follow-ups - **What is [[Spark Innovations, LLC]], and how does it relate to [[Forgelight Ventures, LLC]]?** An Arkansas and/or New York Secretary of State registry search on "Spark Innovations, LLC" is the obvious Tier-2 next step. The New York governing-law clause (vs. Forgelight's Delaware origin) is itself a distinguishing datapoint. - The Black & Veatch NDA signature block for Conway Corporation's authorized representative is present but the OCR does not resolve the signer's name; the raw PDF should be inspected to confirm whether Bret Carroll or another officer executed it. - Whether additional Conway Corporation staff beyond Lee Tedford and Zach Gardner signed Spark Innovations NDAs (the roster on [[Project Stratus Utilities Meetings and Site Visit]] implies several).