LITTLE ROCK — Two banks announce leaders in Arkansas
Two banks have chosen top executives for operations in Arkansas.
Fayetteville-based Arvest Bank selected John Womack, currently president of operations in Fort Smith, as chief executive officer of Arvest’s central Arkansas operations, replacing Larry Choate, who resigned.
Womack is president elect of the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University, and serves on the boards of the Arkansas Tech University Foundation, the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Foundation, St. Edward Mercy Health System and the U.S. Marshal’s Museum Foundation. He was chairman of the Arkansas Bankers Association in 2007.
Iberiabank, based in Lafayette, La., named Pete Yuan, an executive vice president, as regional president of Arkansas.
His responsibilities include management of the bank’s central, northeast and Northwest Arkansas branches, the regional north operations and Iberiabank’s title business.
For the past four years, Yuan has served as president of the bank’s Lafayette market.
Candy Bouquet chief retires; new one is in
Margaret McEntire, who founded Candy Bouquet International in 1989, said Monday that she retired as chief executive Thursday, turning over the company based in Little Rock’s River Market area to Jim Benham.
Benham, who had been the company’s chief operating officer, started at Candy Bouquet in 2008 as the director of sales.
Before that he worked as the registered principal for MassMutual Financial Services Group in Arkansas.
Benham said it’s “premature” to talk about his plans for the company.
McEntire said she plans to continue to work with the company as a consultant.
“I started out with $1,000 in the back of my garage, and now we have stores on every continent,” she said. The company now has 550 franchises around the world, Benham said. Its distribution center also is in Little Rock.
McEntire said she retired so she could spend more time with her family.
Arkansas Index dips to close at 179.66
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 1.82 to 179.66 Monday.
“Moving higher at the open, U.S. stocks finished Monday’s session lower as retail and technology stocks declined,” said Chris Harkins, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
Volume was 27 million shares; the average is 34.7 million.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 21 on 06/22/2010