Glendell Jones Jr. has been named chairman of Southern Bancorp Inc. of Arkadelphia, a $1.1-billion asset community development bank holding company.
He replaces Walter Smiley, who held the post for more than 20 years.
Jones, president of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, said he was asked to step in and serve as chairman after the May 9 board meeting.
Earlier this year, Darrin Williams, a state representative and Little Rock lawyer, was named to replace Smiley as chief executive officer of Southern Bancorp.
Jones and Williams were among a group of five new members named to an expanded Southern Bancorp board of directors a year ago.
For now, Smiley remains a Southern Bancorp director but is expected to exit the board in the coming months.
“We don’t have a date on when he is stepping down,” said Dominik Mjartan, senior vice president and a spokesman for Southern Bancorp.
Smiley, founder of Little Rock‘s Systematics Inc. in 1968, has been involved with the rural development bank and its nonprofit revitalization efforts in the Delta since Southern’s inception more than 25 years ago.