Forty Under 40: Charlie Van Ness

Charlie Van Ness oversees the Northwest Arkansas paw print of Bear State Bank N.A. as regional president, at the age of 31.

“What sets Bear State Bank apart is that age is just a number here. Experience is a factor, but there’s an extreme focus on passion and hard work,” Van Ness said.

The bank’s business approach has been aggressive: acquisitions, rebranding, and the passionate pursuit of new customers, all during a difficult economic time. The culture emphasizes strong, interactional leadership.

A native of Little Rock, Van Ness studied finance and real estate at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and in 2011 was looking for an opportunity to return to Northwest Arkansas.

Van Ness is known for being caring, customer-focused and loving his work. After college, he immediately started in banking as a trainee, moved to credit analysis and then loans and ultimately management. He developed and still manages a $60 million commercial loan portfolio and assisted in acquisitions that have grown the bank from $500 million to $2 billion since 2011. He just completed the first year of a three-year program at the Graduate School of Banking in Wisconsin.

His father had worked in banking and financial advising so, at the dinner table, “any talk outside of hunting, fishing, basketball and golf was around finance,” Van Ness said.

Van Ness is a graduate of Leadership Fayetteville Class 26. He served on the board of the Central Arkansas Chapter of the Risk Management Association and currently serves on the board of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Van Ness became involved when the son of a close family friend was diagnosed, and he observed the disease’s impact on the family.

“All banks consider themselves community-oriented, and at Bear State volunteering is recognized, rewarded and talked about,” he said.