Rogers Banker Remains Part of the Citys Fabric

Jerry Carmichael was an up-and-coming bank executive when he was included in the first Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Forty Under 40 class.

Fifteen years and three banks later, he has become part of the fabric of the city of Rogers.

Carmichael, now the Northwest Arkansas market president for IberiaBank, was an executive with First National Bank & Trust Co. in Rogers in 1997.

Arvest Bank Group Inc. owned FNB at that time and Carmichael had just been promoted from lending services manager to executive vice president, managing a $400 million lending portfolio and 40 lending officers. He had been with the bank for a little less than four years.

FNB eventually became known as Arvest Bank-Rogers, and Carmichael, a 1984 University of Arkansas graduate, was still an important executive for the market leader in 2004.

But in January of that year, he made a decision — to leave the security of Arvest and head up a new bank in the market — that surprised some in the industry.

Portland Bank, based in the southeast Arkansas town of Portland in Ashley County, was relocating its 104-year-old charter to Northwest Arkansas, to be renamed Parkway Bank. Carmichael became the bank’s market president.

“At that time, the market here was blowing and going,” Carmichael said. “It was very dynamic. If you were a bank wanting to grow, looking for investment opportunities, looking to make loans, where was the activity? Northwest Arkansas.”

Carmichael established three full-service bank locations in Benton County, and Parkway grew from a $63 million bank in 2004 to a $175 million bank in 2007.

The company was in a good position for future growth, but in March of that year, Carmichael’s three-year contract was up and so, too, was his time at Parkway.

Of the split, Carmichael said: “[Business] cultures don’t always blend, and that sometimes presents challenges. As much as you try, you’ve got to have a willing party on both sides. A willingness to really rise above the ‘This is the way we’ve always done it’ thinking.

“But I don’t have a beef with anybody at Parkway Bank. I’m still a shareholder in that bank.”

The next month, Carmichael was hired as a senior vice president by Wichita, Kan.-based Intrust Bank, in advance of its own entry into the Northwest Arkansas market.

He led the efforts to establish a loan production office at the World Trade Center Arkansas building in Rogers in November, and the office converted to full branch capabilities by June 2009.

A few months later, Carmichael became the bank’s Northwest Arkansas market president, a job he was comfortable with when approached about taking a similar job at IberiaBank, a subsidiary of IberiaBank Corp., a multi-bank, publicly traded financial holding company headquartered in Lafayette, La.

“My first answer was no; I was fine,” Carmichael recalled. “It was probably two months of what you would call a dating period. I met with [Arkansas market president] Pete Yuan off and on and really found that I had a desire to try and grow something.”

Hired in June 2011, Carmichael is responsible for the bank’s direction at eight banking locations in Benton and Washington counties. He is focused on continuing his career there, helping the company grow and be successful.

Carmichael, 49, also remains keenly focused on his service to the city of Rogers. His involvement in civic, school and community activities are at the core of many of his proudest achievements, he said.

Carmichael holds leadership positions on several prominent boards, including the Rogers Public Schools, the Boys & Girls Club of Benton County and the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce.

His service with the school board began in 1999. In 2010, he was presented the Pinnacle Award by the Arkansas School Boards Association, the highest award for a school board member in Arkansas.

His wife of 29 years, Tricia, teaches in the Rogers School District and both sons, Jared and Jason, were accomplished athletes for Rogers High School.

Said Carmichael: “I am passionate about my family. My parents live here and my sister lives here. We’ve always enjoyed being around the boys and what they are involved in. I’ve been blessed. At the end of the day, [family] is most important to me.”