Then and Now: Robinson’s career defined by banking

Katie Robinson didn’t plan to be a banker. A Fort Smith native, she was pre-med at Oklahoma State University, but after graduating in 1999, she realized she wasn’t ready for more school and didn’t want to work in a lab.

So, she managed Powerhouse Seafood & Grill in Fayetteville for several years before finding her way to a management trainee program at Arvest Bank in 2004.

At Arvest, Robinson was assistant branch manager for a year, then bank vice president and branch manager for seven years. After that, she moved into treasury management as an adviser and vice president, and then into private banking as vice president/private banking adviser. She also earned her Series 7 and Series 66 licenses from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority/North American Securities Administrators Association (FINRA/NASAA) and won several top-producer awards.

She was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2013.

Donny Story, Arvest’s Fayetteville bank president, now retired, greatly influenced Robinson’s banking career.

“He was always such a great role model in the good times and bad throughout banking. He always preached, ‘do the right thing,’ and I have tried to live by that with both my professional and personal life. He was always very proud of his family and his associates, which had a very positive influence from the beginning in my career,” she said.

Robinson was happy at Arvest, but when Simmons Bank reached out in 2020 and offered her “an opportunity I couldn’t pass up at the time,” she took the job and entered commercial real estate lending. Robinson works with large commercial clients, multifamily projects and large commercial real estate deals. She’s closed several $20 million deals in the multifamily, hotel and retail spaces.

“I enjoy seeing deals from start to finish,” she said. “Some of them obviously take longer than others, but actually getting something to the finish line” is fulfilling.

In 2023 Robinson was Simmons Bank Metro Banker of the Year, the top commercial lender for the bank. The highlight for her on the commercial side has been “being part of the growth of Northwest Arkansas, getting deals done, and then seeing their success and having new growth, new employment in NWA and helping be a little part of that.”

Robinson enjoys the relationships she’s made over 25 years with colleagues and customers. Her philosophy is to “work your hardest, but know you’re not going to land every deal,” she said. “But as long as you know you tried your hardest, just be proud of your work.”

Reflecting on her career, she’s glad to have learned “the ins and outs of banking. I’ve done a little bit in each department, so that helps me see the full spectrum of banking, from the retail side, over to private banking, now to commercial. So, I’ve got a good, well-rounded grasp of the different sides of banking.”

There are challenges with being a woman in the commercial real estate business, Robinson said. She meets challenges by working hard to have a “good well-rounded understanding of her end of the deal itself,” and with confidence that she “can actually get the deal done.”

While she wishes she’d gotten into the lending side of banking sooner, because of the opportunity there, she doesn’t see a career change in her future.

“I want to continue to move up the ladder in banking,” Robinson said. “Hopefully I’ll stay in banking for the rest of my career.”

Robinson’s parents are her role models. Her dad, who died when she was in college, often told her, “There’s never a bad day; some days are just better than others.” She’s tried to live by that.

A longtime supporter of Ronald McDonald House, she was on its board for many years. She’s active with the Fayetteville High School Booster Club.

Robinson has been married to Kirk for 25 years and is motivated by her desire to be a good role model for her children, who are in college and high school, as she’s worked to raise them successfully. The family enjoys fishing at Beaver Lake and snow skiing in Colorado in the winter, staying active and outdoors.