Fast 15: Clarke Moore

Clarke Moore’s rapid rise up the financial industry ladder hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Upon Moore’s hiring by U.S. Bank in January, Arkansas real estate titan Jim Lindsey — like Moore, a University of Arkansas graduate and a Razorback football letterman — picked up the telephone to call the man responsible.

“You better make sure he’s good at his real estate math,” Lindsey joked with Roger Cole. “You can’t be too sure about the quality of education these young guys are getting these days.”

“Jim, I think he’s pretty good,” answered Cole, U.S. Bank’s commercial real estate manager for the Arkansas market. “That’s why we’re hiring him.”

Moore graduated in 2005 owning a bachelor’s degree in business administration with emphasis in finance and real estate. He counts himself fortunate that an internship during the summer of 2005 at the Fayetteville branch of First Western Bank led to a job offer there “after my last game was over,” later that fall.

Successes there led him to a commercial lending/business development position at First Community Bank of Crawford County in February 2007.

In his current spot at U.S. Bank, Moore manages a $23 million loan portfolio consisting of commercial real estate.

To attract new business and explore new opportunities for existing customers, Moore makes seven phone calls per week, four of those to new prospects.

“I’m still a competitive guy, no matter what I’m doing,” Moore said. “I like to get out and compete for business.”

Working and being an active community member in the place he grew up, Moore said, is a perk for him, his wife and two young sons.

 The majority of any free time goes to them.

“But my brain is always clicking, thinking of what I need to do next,” he added.

In the long term, that won’t include leaving Van Buren, where Moore is part of the radio broadcast team for Van Buren Pointer football games, president-elect of the Rotary Club and a board member of the Boys & Girls Club.

“I don’t see myself doing anything differently,” Moore said. “I am really enjoying the banking industry. I will not make a move to another bank, let’s just say that."