A Tale of Bank Board Members and Personal Responsibility

Arkansas Business’ weekly “Executive Q&A” is a popular feature, but sometimes we’re forced to make painful cuts because of space constraints.

One item trimmed from this week’s feature was just too good to go unpublished.
Robert “Bunny” Adcock, vice chairman of the board of Home BancShares of Conway and former Arkansas State Bank Commissioner, shared an anecdote when asked for an example of an occasion in which board members really made a difference to a company:

“Let me quote one of the most flamboyant Bank Commissioners in Arkansas history. Marlin Jackson was in a meeting with the board of a troubled bank. The directors had made a series of bad loans, and the bank was in danger of failing.

“Marlin pulled out a piece of paper and wrote the names of every director on the paper. Then he went around the room and asked each director how much he was going to write his check for. If they didn’t answer, he assigned an amount to them. He said, ‘You let this bank get into this mess. Now you are going to get the bank out of trouble by writing checks and recapitalizing the bank.’

“That is really making a difference in the company!”