Fast 15: Todd Varnadoe

When hired in November 2010 to run an Arvest Bank branch in Jane, Mo., Todd Varnadoe didn’t have much of a track record in the banking industry.

Heading a local office for a Missouri-based real estate company brought him to Northwest Arkansas in 2006.

That was roughly the time the real estate boom ended and by the time Arvest hired him, Varnadoe was solely busy with his own home-based landscaping company.

But he did work for U.S. Bank a few years earlier while attending Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo., and the experience made an impression on the Florida native.

“I had been interested in financial services, but I loved the customer aspect of it,” he said. “Helping people and making good relationships, I definitely loved.”

When a job with Arvest became available, Varnadoe said he jumped on it. And after one year of his leadership, the Wal-Mart Supercenter branch in Jane increased its margins by triple digits in several categories.

Direct sales were up 109 percent, referrals improved by 121 percent and loan applications jumped a whopping 187 percent.

That success helped Varnadoe gain a significant position with the company: his current post as branch manager at the Arvest-Benton County Financial Center in Bentonville, where most of the private banking for Arvest customers in Benton County is conducted.

“It’s a great opportunity and this is where I want to be,” said Varnadoe, who lives in Bentonville with his wife of three-plus years and their 3-month-old son. “It’s great to see people come in that I know and live in the same community as we do.”

Varnadoe, who earned an organizational management degree from John Brown University in 2011, termed Northwest Arkansas “one of the best-kept secrets in America,” full of opportunities to indulge two favorite hobbies — hiking and canoeing.

Varnadoe also is an active member of Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers, where his met his wife — a Bentonville native — through a community group.

“I feel like this is my home,” he said. “This is where we want to put our roots down.”

Claim to fame

In less than two years, earned fast-track status with the largest bank in Arkansas.

— Paul Gatling