Forty Under 40: Brock Gearhart

Brock Gearhart earned a financial management degree from the University of Arkansas in 2004. He had long had his sights on beginning his professional career in New York City, so that’s where he went.

Merrill Lynch, where Gearhart interned a year earlier, hired him as a senior specialist in strategic marketing. He was promoted quickly, first to assistant vice president and in 2006 to vice president of private banking.

Gearhart — the son of former UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart — spent two years in that role before returning home to Fayetteville, where his family has lived since the 1940s.

“I loved [New York] and still do, and it was a great time in our lives. But it wasn’t where I wanted to be long term and raise my own family,” he said.

Mary Ann Greenwood hired Gearhart to work at her investment banking firm, then called Greenwood & Associates. He became a partner about a year later and president and CEO in 2013. In 2015, Gearhart purchased the firm from Greenwood, which has been an excellent arrangement for both, he said.

The business now serves more than 500 clients throughout the country, and client managed assets recently topped the $500 million mark. That figure makes the firm one of the largest independent investment advisory firms in the state.

Since moving back to the region, Gearhart has shown a willingness to devote his time for causes and organizations he believes in. A significant project he has worked on the past two years is the New Beginnings project, a transitional housing community in Fayetteville for the homeless.

Married with three children, Gearhart is on the board of the Walton Arts Center Foundation. He is a past board chair of Fayetteville nonprofit Life Styles, which provides services to individuals with disabilities.