Head of virtual arkansas9/24/2023 ![]() ![]() “At 43, I woke up and decided I could do things differently and build something for my family and my friends’ families,” Head said. Though he had made it to a position that many would envy, Head felt an entrepreneurial spirit stir in him. Head remained CEO until 2004, overseeing McIlroy Bank’s 2001 consolidation with the rest of the banks in the Arvest Bank Group, renamed simply Arvest Bank. You never know when you’re going to need one, so you make friends all day every day.” Broyles had been Head’s mentor for many years, and Head credits him with the best advice he has ever received or given: “Now listen carefully, you can never have too many friends. And when you’re the leader, you’re responsible to set an example, to lead with distinction, to provide growth that gives everybody an opportunity to stay employed on a go-forward basis.”įortunately, Head had a great deal of help in taking on this responsibility, particularly from Broyles, who was a member of the board of directors. ![]() You employ a whole lot of people, and they have spouses, children, or grandchildren that rely on their pay. But all of a sudden, you have a lot of responsibility for a whole lot of people’s lives. Most people don’t really understand, because if you’ve never done it then it’s difficult to explain. Next thing you know, at 39, I’m president and CEO of the bank. “The worst job to have in the whole bank, that’s what they put me in. “I was incredibly fortunate to be named CEO of the bank that I started in a file clerk,” Head said. The following year, he earned a Master’s of Banking from Louisiana State University. In 1988, again at Lindsey’s recommendation, he was recruited back to McIlroy bank, where he would serve as a finance executive until 1999, the year he was promoted to CEO. He remained there for almost three years and became vice president, during which time McIlroy was purchased by Jim Walton’s Arvest Bank Group. With a promising early career, Head was recruited to First State Bank in Springdale in 1984 at the recommendation of one of his biggest customers and mentors, Jim Lindsey of the Walton Foundation. “I became a lot of people’s favorite person really quickly because I knew something about them that nobody else had ever bothered to know,” Head said. When he finished the new system and became a loan officer, he knew a little bit about every client who came in the door. ![]() Since he had to read through every single credit file, he found the files of major figures in the state, such as Frank Broyles and Sam Walton. The job that no one else wanted to do turned out to be a blessing in disguise. ![]() “I couldn’t come out, so I worked really hard and a lot faster than probably some people might have because I wanted out of there really bad.” “I got locked in a dungeon until I finished building a new credit file system,” Head said. It was his job to update the bank’s archaic credit file system, requiring him to sort through decades of old files. Thanks to the professor’s recommendations, Head was able to land a job at McIlroy Bank, the oldest bank in Arkansas, where he started as a file clerk, one of the lowest rungs of the ladder. Dominick helped him to find a job after he graduated in 1982, a year of recession when interest rates were high and banking jobs were scarce. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas, where he worked with long-time finance professor John Dominick. While he had little personal connection to the banking industry, he nevertheless felt drawn to it and his career path never deviated from that course. Head was raised in Eureka Springs, which he affectionately dubbed “the cultural center of the universe.” His father was a rural mail carrier, and his grandfather had been in the savings and loan business but retired before Head graduated college. It may seem like a strange choice, but he and his company are proud to march to the beat of a different drum. Once you are king of the hill, though, where can you go? Many might rest on their laurels and enjoy the view, but Gary Head, chairman and CEO of Signature Bank of Arkansas, got up and left to build his own hill from scratch. I f you start from the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. ![]()
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