Forty Under 40: Rob Woods

After earning his bachelor’s degree and then his MBA from Ole Miss, Rob Woods landed a job as a banker in southeast Missouri and worked his way up through the ranks.

Soon he got a job at a competing bank and was eventually named chief financial officer in 1996.

He held that position until 2003, when the original bank he worked for came under regulator scrutiny. He was hired back as CFO as part of a team to reorganize it and get things running right.

Meanwhile, his parents and brother had relocated to Northwest Arkansas, so Woods decided to join them in 2004. It’s no surprise because Woods said his father, a man he calls Mr. Corporate America, has been the most significant influence in his life and career.

“I wanted to be like my dad — corporate and professional — and I wanted to go into business,” Woods said.

He was hired by Arvest Bank and worked in loan review for about a year before being named a commercial loan officer.

Woods, 39, has was recently appointed by the Arkansas State Speaker of the House to a statewide commission that helped created an umbilical-cord blood stem cell bank at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The research garnered from that bank will have the potential to battle hundreds of diseases, he said.