Forty Under 40: Jeff Thames

Jeff Thames, 37, caught the banking bug when he was 16.

A native of Talequah, Okla., Thames started at the bottom of the totem pole with First State Bank in his hometown and gained invaluable experience before receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville.

He worked at old Worthern Bank in Little Rock, National Bank of Sallisaw, Okla., and finally Friendly Bank in Oklahoma City before spending the last eight years with First National Bank of Springdale. Thames joined the local institution as an assistant auditor with the understanding he’d be moving to operations within a year.

It only took three months. His duties now include deposits, tellers, new accounts, customer services, electronic banking, security purchasing and managing sales for the bank.

Thames helped implement the bank’s pervasive sales culture even before it was purchased five years ago by First Tennessee National Corp. in Memphis.

Now the bank’s staff tries to visit with their customers to make sure they know about all of First National’s products and services.

He graduated in 1997 from the Bank Administration Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.