Forty Under 40: James L. Smith

James Smith went into the military when he graduated high school in 1989, so he’s no stranger to personal discipline.

Upon his discharge in 1993, Smith began to sell insurance in his hometown of Neosho, Mo. He wanted to enter banking, but didn’t get hired on until 1998, when he joined Nations Bank as a commercial loan officer. He quickly worked his way up through the ranks and when Nations was acquired by Bank of America in 2002, he was a regional manager in private banking overseeing three market managers in five states and more than $1 billion in total assets.

As with many mergers, his position was eliminated and he ended up building a private bank for a smaller bank in southwest Missouri for about two years before he was recruited to Bank of Arkansas by Jeff Dunn, president.
Smith has built the bank’s private services and said he deals with many of the area’s corporate executives and offers estate planning for high net-worth individuals.

Smith is a certified financial planner, chair-elect for the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, a councilman for the City of Bentonville and is the treasurer on the executive board of startup chapter of the YMCA of Northwest Arkansas.