Veteran banker Ron Branscum getting back in the game

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story appeared in the May 15 issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Then & Now” is a profile of a past member of the Business Journal’s  Forty Under 40 class.

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Ron Branscum is in the midst of a career change, but he’s not entering an industry he’s unfamiliar with.

Branscum, 46, is juggling two jobs, but only for a short while longer. He’s spent the past seven years as president of Regional Therapy Services in Rogers, running the day-to-day operations of a business he’s owned with his wife, Deedra, who launched the company in 2001 with two other part-time therapists. The business had as many as 12 speech therapists at one time, and now has nine.

“It’s a speech therapy company that works with children from birth to 5 years of age,” Branscum said. “It helps get kids caught up before they enter the public school system.”

That role, however, is coming to an end as Branscum pivots back toward his first career. For the past few weeks, he has been transitioning into his new role working for Batesville-chartered The Citizens Bank, which has two offices in Northwest Arkansas — one in Fayetteville and one in Rogers.

Branscum will be the bank’s Rogers city president, returning to a market he’s quite familiar with. A Jacksonville native, Branscum worked for Arvest Bank in Benton County from 1998 to 2010, beginning as a senior credit analyst and then working his way up the commercial lending ladder. He was featured in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2004.

He’s expected to begin full-time work with Citizens on June 5.

“Citizens wants to grow their footprint in Northwest Arkansas and this is a great opportunity to come in and provide leadership for the Rogers market,” Branscum said.

Branscum said a phone call a few months ago from Doug Lynch, Citizens’ market president in Northwest Arkansas, was perfectly timed.

“Looking down the road in the therapy industry, we could see there were going to be more and more challenges,” he said. “And banking has always been something to return to. It wasn’t necessarily the plan, but we always knew that could be the case.”

Branscum said he and Lynch got to know one another for a couple of months, and he also visited with a few other banks about getting back into the industry, before he accepted Citizens’ offer.

According to the FDIC’s most recent Summary of Deposits report last June, Citizens Bank — which had total deposits of $569.1 million — held $36.3 million in deposits in its two Northwest Arkansas locations. Total deposits in the two branches now are about $45 million, Lynch said.

Branscum will try and grow that business by growing the team in Rogers, which now has nine employees. He’d like to add two new lenders and additional “backroom help” within the next three to six months.

“You get the right folks and then just develop new relationships,” he said. “At the end of the day, banking is taking care of your customers and knowing your customers, and that revolves around relationships. It will always be that way.”

Branscum said the heightened bank regulations since he last worked in the industry have been eye-opening, and the competitive lending market in Rogers — where there are 22 banks doing business — will be challenging.

Still, there are plenty of opportunities to grow market share, Branscum said.

“Northwest Arkansas is a unique place,” he said. “There are lots of banks, but there’s also a lot of niches that can be met. The key will be Citizens Bank finding its niche in Rogers. We’re trying to decipher what that might be, but I think as we bring new [employees] on we’ll be able to find that out and get a better feel.”

Branscum’s civic involvement already mirrors that of an engaged community banker. He’s a board member at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, Little Rock-based nonprofit Family Council — one of the state’s leading conservative groups — and Blackwood Industries Inc., a Florida-based private company that has clients in the food-service, CPG and product development industries. It has an office in Bentonville.

Branscum and his wife will celebrate their 22nd anniversary this month, likely surrounded by their seven children, ranging in age from 14 to 1.

Branscum coaches his oldest son’s home-school basketball team — the Northwest Arkansas Hornets — and he is an active member of Boundless Grace Baptist Church in Rogers.

“God, family and work,” Branscum said. “Those three keep me busy.”