Forty Under 40: Jeff Dunn

Jeff Dunn, 37, says he always tries to remember one thing in business: “I like to try to treat people the way I would want them to treat me.” Treating people with respect and never compromising his integrity are part of Dunn’s recipe for success.

“[Your integrity] is really all you have in this business,” says Dunn, who is president of Bank of Arkansas. “When I tell [my customers] something, they know I’m going to do it.”

Additionally, he believes in using common sense to solve problems and in being persistent.

Dunn earned a finance degree from Texas A&M University in 1984 and then spent two years working for Texas Commerce Bank-Reagan in Houston. He moved next to Bank of Oklahoma, which, like Bank of Arkansas, is a BOK Financial Corp. affiliate.

From 1989-91, Dunn lived in Baltimore while working for Signet Bank/Maryland and completing his MBA from Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore. He returned to Bank of Oklahoma in 1992 and then moved to Fayetteville in 1995. Dunn was the bank’s senior commercial loan officer when he was promoted to the president’s post last fall.

Dunn is chairman of the Springdale Salvation Army board. He believes in the Salvation Army’s goal, which is to provide basic needs – food, shelter and jobs – to the neediest.