Laura Merling, Arvest Bank’s chief transformation officer, departs company
by March 15, 2024 11:04 am 3,811 views
Laura Merling
Laura Merling, chief transformation and operations officer at Bentonville-based Arvest Bank, is no longer with the company.
On Friday (March 15), a bank spokesman confirmed Merling’s departure in February in response to a Northwest Arkansas Business Journal question.
The bank noted in a statement, “Her contributions in building a transformation plan and team will be valuable as we continue to invest in transformation in all aspects of our organization. We appreciate Laura’s contributions and wish her all the best in the future.
The spokesman said Merling’s responsibilities now belong to Matt Machen, who was recently promoted to the bank’s president and COO.
In October 2021, Arvest Bank recruited Merling based on her accomplishments in implementing change in large organizations. A former Google executive, her job with Arvest was to spearhead the bank’s extensive transformation plan. The strategy encompasses adopting an advanced banking platform and emphasizing a community-centric approach in an increasingly digital landscape.
“We achieved quite a bit over the last several years and we are all very proud of the measurable outcomes,” Merling told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Arvest is an incredible organization to work for and great associates to work with.”
Arvest traces its roots back to 1961, when Walmart Inc. founder Sam Walton acquired its predecessor bank, The Bank of Bentonville, for approximately $300,000. Today, Arvest is one of the state’s largest banks. It has more than 200 locations that are part of 14 locally managed banks in more than 110 communities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. According to the FDIC, as of Dec. 31, 2023, the bank’s total assets were $27.6 billion, and its deposits totaled $21.7 billion.
American Banker, an industry publication, named Merling one of 20 Innovators of the Year in 2023. The magazine wrote, “Since Merling joined Arvest in 2021 as chief transformation and operations officer, she has found concrete ways to solve customer problems. From late 2021 to early 2022, she conducted a vulnerability study that uncovered seven categories of frustration among customers and subtler but still present annoyances she dubs ‘rocks in their shoes.’”
Based in North Carolina, Merling joined Arvest from Google Cloud, where she was chief transformation officer and managing director. Before joining Google, she was the managing director and chief digital officer for Slalom, providing business and product strategy to multibillion-dollar companies in technology, transportation, energy, CPG, retail, healthcare and education.
She also worked as the chief digital officer for Collins Aerospace and was vice president of digital products for Ford and AT&T.
In July 2022, Arvest announced a five-year partnership with Google’s cloud computing division to overhaul its current IT architecture and systems, including migrating its data centers to Google Cloud. That partnership followed an agreement with London-based fintech firm Thought Machine in September 2021 to implement a next-generation core banking infrastructure.