Ex-Arvest Executive Cuts Ties With Local Boards
by March 19, 2014 9:07 am 179 views
Dennis Smiley, who last week ended a quarter-century association with Arvest Bank, has resigned as chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Community College Foundation board of directors.
Meredith Brunen, executive director of the nonprofit organization, said Smiley, a longtime board member and chairman since July 2010, resigned from the board Monday.
Vice chairman Mike Luttrell of Walker Brothers Insurance of Springdale will lead the board in the interim, Brunen said.
“Our officer elections take place annually, so we will re-elect officers in June,” she added
Incorporated in 1991, the NWACC Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Bentonville college, and is governed by a 30-person board comprised of business and community leaders. Their primary responsibility, according to the foundation website, is to manage, guide and advocate for NWACC, the second-largest community college in the state.
The Business Journal has also learned Smiley resigned Monday from the nonprofit The Jones Trust board of directors, a controlling entity of several charity organizations in Northwest Arkansas. He was named to that board in April 2011.
Smiley abruptly resigned March 13 as local bank president and CEO of Arvest Bank in Benton County, a job he’d held since April 2012.
Arvest Benton County includes 23 branch locations and the geographic footprint covers an area including Lowell, Rogers, Bentonville, Centerton, Gravette, Pea Ridge, Berryville and Bella Vista in Arkansas, and Jane, Anderson, Noel and Shell Knob in Missouri.
Smiley joined Arvest in 1989 as a commercial loan officer with McIlroy Bank in Fayetteville. In 1991, he joined the then-Springdale Bank and Trust as a loan manager and moved to sales manager in 1999.
He was promoted to president and CEO of Arvest Bank in Springdale in 2001 and remained there until replacing the retiring David Short in the Benton County market.