CHAIRMAN’S C O LU M N
Paying It Forward Jon Harrell
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Chairman
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Arkansas Bankers Association
recently had the honor and privilege to welcome and address the Emerging Leaders at their Leadership Conference.
Although virtual, those who attended from Generations Bank said it was successful and well worth the time. Preparing my notes on the topics I wanted to discuss with the group brought me back to my journey through this industry and the people who have had an impact on my career. I have wonderful memories of visiting my grandfather, Searcy Harrell, Sr., at the Calhoun County Bank in Hampton which was only 30 minutes from where I lived. I was like a kid in a candy store wandering through the vault area and behind the teller line where I knew where all of the candy was hidden. All of the ladies wore the same matching outfits and the men all wore ties with either long or short sleeved shirts depending on the season. It was fun being “Mr. Searcy’s” grandson. After attending the University of Arkansas for two years and figuring out that I did not want to major in Accounting, I switched to a Finance and Banking degree path. I had the privilege of being under the tutelage of Dr. John Dominick for those last two years of college and am proud to have forged a relationship with him to where we are still in contact to this day. Post college, I was an examiner with the Arkansas State Bank Department under then Commissioner Bill Ford. I forged many great relationships with fellow examiners and staff during those days that continue to serve me well to this day. I eventually made it back to Calhoun County Bank where I had the opportunity to work in the family owned bank. My father, Searcy Harrell, Jr., was now Chairman of the bank but was not a full time banker, but an attorney. Lucky for me, he had developed a relationship with
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“There are many other leaders and bankers in our state who have had and are having an impact on today’s bankers and will have an opportunity to impact the next generation of bankers.” Dan Horton over the years and I had the opportunity to hang around Dan and watch and learn how he operated his banks. Another consummate community banker! I made the decision to move to Northwest Arkansas and have the opportunity to work with one of the most dynamic, best business development bankers around in Gary Head. Gary knew how to put together a tremendous team of bankers to lead a start-up and it was exciting to be a part of. I eventually worked my way back to the family bank when we had the opportunity to purchase two branches in Northwest Arkansas. With more experience and age, I had the opportunity to once again work with my father. He supplied me with a level of trust that I am not sure I deserved, but I will always appreciate. He passed away suddenly in 2013, thrusting me into a position that I was not sure I was ready for. The faith of the family and our bank’s Board of Directors gave me the confidence to embrace my new position and start leading the bank with my vision and abilities. All of these names that I mentioned gave me a piece of the knowledge required to be an effective leader of the organization with the most important being my father’s appreciation for our family owned bank and how important it is to be a community banker. There are many other leaders and bankers in our state who have had and
are having an impact on today’s bankers and will have an opportunity to impact the next generation of bankers. One of our current challenges is to cultivate our industry into an attractive potential career for those financial leaning prospective graduates. The Great Recession of 2008-2010 left many banks in a condition that we did not hire a tremendous amount of young talent and I think many of us are now paying the price. Many graduates do not consider banking as an option and we need to find a way to change this. We need them to ensure the long-term viability of many of our community banks and let’s face it, they understand and embrace technology that will be a necessity if we are going to continue to operate in this space. As an industry, we need to be intentional about reaching out to our area colleges and universities and contact their business departments and professors to see how we can get involved in encouraging students to look at a career in banking. We need to continue to support the Emerging Leaders Section of the ABA by enrolling our young talent and letting them participate and develop relationships that will pay dividends for them down the road. We never know how we may influence tomorrow’s industry leaders which will in turn help our industry to continue to thrive today and into the future.
