Kendall Charting Future As CEO of Waco Title Co.

Title company executive Matt Kendall has not changed much despite a new title.

Kendall, 42, was chief operating officer at Springdale-based Waco Title Co. when he was honored in summer 2009 as a member of the Forty Under 40 class. He was named to the post in 2003, continuing in the industry he more or less grew up in.

His father bought Benton County Title and Abstract Co. when Kendall was just a child. He cut his teeth doing summertime work as a courier and researcher while attending Hendrix College in Conway.

And with two decades of experience learning the industry from the ground up — and after running the day-to-day operations at Waco for several years — Kendall’s wealth of knowledge made him an obvious choice to head the company, which is owned by Bentonville-based Arvest Bank Group Inc.

He was promoted in April 2011 to president and CEO, taking the place of Blake Hanby, who left to open his own title business in Northwest Arkansas.

As CEO, Kendall is responsible for about 125 employees and the production in 16 branch locations throughout Arkansas and southwest Missouri.

Patrick Curry is the new COO and “is doing a great job of running all the operations in all the branches,” Kendall said.

But Kendall isn’t a hands-off type of CEO content to stay holed up in a boardroom. He still occasionally works on files, ensuring that all the documents related to a real estate transaction are in order.

“Whether that’s right or wrong, I like to be in the middle of things,” he joked. “It really gives you a bead on things.”

Kendall also said he’s spending just as much time traveling and visiting each of the branch locations as in the past, if not more so.

“I like to meet with our managers one-on-one,” he said. “And with our employees on the frontlines. One thing I was able to do a little differently was to sit down with every one of our associates at the end of the year for a one-on-one meeting. So [being CEO] has freed me of some of the operational tasks to meet more people that make us successful. Our leaders and our associates really drive the company.”

Kendall said years of listening, learning and asking questions helped prepare him to assume the top executive post at Waco.

“I had great teachers over the years,” he said. “I tried to learn from individuals who had been in the business a long time.”

Kendall is taking that same approach at Waco. He and other members of the company leadership are beginning to go on more site visits outside the state, visiting with larger title companies throughout the region to see how they do business.

“That’s what Sam Walton did,” Kendall said. “He went out and studied his competitors and asked a lot of questions. That’s the only way you learn, is to study and see what they do well and bring that back and try to implement it. And that’s helped us out a lot.”

In the past couple of years, Kendall noted the company’s expansion into the Missouri markets of Springfield and Joplin, as well as entering the Little Rock market, as significant achievements.

He also said the growth of the commercial division at Waco, with a centralized commercial division in Fayetteville, has been a big recent achievement.

On the future growth strategy of the company, Kendall said expansion to other markets would be desirable, but not without proper consideration.

“We’re not going to aggressively seek out growth and acquisition just to say we’re growing and adding people,” he said. “We want to go where we can help a community and make acquisitions that make sense.”

Kendall, who celebrated his 19th wedding anniversary last month, said he enjoys spending time with his wife and their two sons, ages 15 and 9. The Rogers native also relishes the fact his entire family — including Rogers City Council member Clay Kendall, a younger brother — lives within three miles of each other.

“We have a very big family and we’re very close-knit,” he said.

Kendall also stays busy by serving as a director for several boards, including Open Avenues and Project Lifesaver.

Kendall, a competitive 4.0 tennis player and an avid runner, is training to compete this fall in his first Tough Mudder competition, a multi-event, military-designed test of mental and physical endurance.