BOZ Executive Headed to Great Southern Bank

Great Southern Bank of Springfield, Mo., announced Thursday that Bank of the Ozarks vice president John Summers has accepted a job as the bank’s commercial loan manager and market manager for Northwest Arkansas.

He is replacing James Smith, who resigned at the end of December.

Summers joined Little Rock-based BOZ in August 2011 and worked from the bank’s Fayetteville Crossover location. He spent a decade before that with First Federal Bancshares of Arkansas Inc., the holding company for First Federal Bank of Harrison.

GSB opened a loan production office in Rogers in 2003, and in May 2010 opened a full-service branch — its only Arkansas branch — in the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers.

In terms of countywide deposits, $16.9 million as of June 30 last year, GSB has a modest market share in Benton County, about 0.37 percent.

With $3.6 billion in total assets, GSB operates 96 retail banking centers in Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota.