Martha Londagin Leaving Walton College for Legacy Bank

Did you know business consultant Martha Londagin is leaving the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center at the University of Arkansas? Her last day at the ASBTDC is Oct. 11, and the following day she’ll join the commercial lending team at Springdale-based Legacy National Bank.

The ASBTDC is based at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and has a network of seven offices around the state, with a goal of offering help to both startup and existing businesses through one-to-one consulting, classes and seminars and market research.

Its Fayetteville office is an outreach program of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the UA, and serves Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Boone, Newton and Searcy counties.

“My time at the Walton College has been a daily joy,” Londagin told Whispers. “I’m very proud of its commitment to provide free resources and support for our Northwest Arkansas entrepreneurial community. It’s an amazing outreach program.”

Londagin said her decision to work for Legacy is largely because of the lender’s commitment to being a leader in small business banking. She said the bank is now the third-largest U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the state and also hired its first full-time SBA loan specialist last summer, Lance Sexton, formerly the deputy director of the SBA’s Little Rock loan servicing center.

“They are a locally owned bank, and the decisions are made locally, even when it comes to SBA loans,” Londagin says.