Then & Now: Husong changing way people think about banks

Rob Husong has almost 30 years in banking under his belt but doesn’t consider himself to be a traditional banker.

As president of F1RSTNB, formerly First National Bank of NWA, he’s trying to change the way people think about banks by creating buildings that don’t look or feel like traditional banks and encouraging the community to come into the spaces.

F1RSTNB’s Bentonville bank is also an art gallery, with an art curator and revolving art shows, while the Fayetteville location hosts about 80 nonprofit and for-profit events a year, including The Children’s Safety Center’s fashion show fundraiser.

“People dread going to the bank like going to the DMV,” Husong said. “So we’re trying to change that feeling so people don’t see the bank as a necessary evil but as a place where they feel welcome and comfortable.”

Under Husong’s leadership over the past 12 years, the bank grew “sixfold in loans” and “threefold in deposits,” started mortgage operations and increased brand recognition, he said.

Husong went into banking because he wanted to help people, finding his passion in community banking.

“They’re the fabric the community is painted on, and they affect communities across the nation,” Husong said. “Community banks are very invested in making sure that communities are thriving and growing, whether that’s helping small businesses, helping start small businesses or helping first-time home buyers.”

Seeing community members he helped through the bank become successful makes him proud because he knows “what I did to help them created an opportunity for them to grow in a way that was successful.”

From Grove, Okla., Husong grew up on a farm with a dad who instilled a strong work ethic and confidence in him, telling him, “There’s nothing you can’t do” and letting Husong try anything. That included driving a car to the store at age 9. As a teenager Husong ran a 2,000-acre farm and managed eight older employees. “I didn’t know that wasn’t normal. I thought every 15-year-old had a checkbook and had to buy equipment and pay people.”

Those experiences resonate today, Husong said.

“Internally, I’m the one who tends to push us forward on things when there’s new technologies or ideas,” he said. “That goes back to my dad allowing me to try things. I failed a lot, too, but something my dad instilled in me was that trying and failing doesn’t mean you’re a failure. That just means you learned something not to do next time.”

Husong also learned there are multiple ways of doing something, and so “a problem isn’t going to stop me. Instead I’m going to start thinking of different ways to attack this problem from different angles and accomplish where we need to go.”

Husong graduated in 1996 from the University of Arkansas in marketing management, in 1998 from the American Bankers Association National Commercial Lending School and in 2010 from the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado (GSBC).

After college he worked in Oklahoma before Arvest Bank brought him to Northwest Arkansas in 1998. In 2004 Husong and some friends partnered with Community First Bank of Harrison to start a new bank, officially opening Signature Bank of Arkansas in 2005. In 2013, First National Bank of Fort Smith asked Husong to head its Northwest Arkansas division, and he was also named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class that year. He’s been president of First National Bank of NWA for 12 years, helping oversee the bank’s name change to F1RSTNB in June.

The greatest challenges of his career come from ever-changing government regulations, finding and keeping good employees, and fraud and cybersecurity. He believes artificial intelligence will help with fraud, cybersecurity and regulatory issues in the future.

Husong is a member of the board of trustees at GSBC, which focuses on providing graduate-level education for community bankers. He’s also involved with the Arkansas Bankers Association and has been on numerous boards over the years, including the Sunshine School, Downtown Bentonville Inc. and Rotary.

He and his wife, Carrie, have four sons. Husong’s goal is to hike all 54 Colorado mountain peaks over 14,000 feet. He’s at 21, having hiked several multiple times.