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Bank of the Ozarks Expands Board to 15 Members

2 min read

Greg McKinney, Bank of the Ozarks’ chief financial officer and chief accounting officer, was elected to the firm’s board of directors during its annual shareholders’ meeting on Monday. The 45-year-old executive joined the company in 2003.

McKinney’s election expanded board membership to 15.

Shareholders also approved amending the corporate bylaws to allow up to 20 directors. Ross Whipple, chairman and chief executive officer of Summit Bancorp Inc. of Arkadelphia, is expected to join the board in the weeks to come.

Whipple was recognized as a special guest at the shareholders meeting by George Gleason, chairman and CEO of Bank of the Ozarks.

Whipple became one of the largest shareholders in Bank of the Ozarks after the acquisition of Summit Bancorp was completed Friday. His estimated holdings after the transaction top 1.4 million shares, worth more than $81.2 million.

The combined total assets of Summit and BOZ are more than $6.8 billion.

“It is a great community bank and is going to be a great part of our bank,” Gleason said of Summit.

Shareholders also approved increasing the authorized shares of common stock from 50 million to 125 million and amending the newly renamed 2009 Restricted Stock and Incentive Plan to allow for granting performance awards based upon performance goals and targets.

In addition to Gleason and McKinney, the full board of directors approved by shareholders are:

  • Jean Arehart, 73, retired senior lending officer and a director since 2002
  • Nicholas Brown, 55, president and CEO of Southwest Power Pool of Little Rock and director since 2012
  • Richard Cisne, 63, founding partner of the Little Rock accounting firm of Hudson Cisne & Co. and a director since 2004
  • Robert East, 66, chairman of the Little Rock general contracting firm of East-Harding Inc. and a director since 1997
  • Catherine Freedberg, 71, former board member at The First National Bank of Shelby, North Carolina, and a director since 2013
  • Linda Gleason, 59, deputy CEO and assistant secretary of Bank of the Ozarks, wife of George Gleason and a director since 1987
  • Peter Kenny, 55, CEO of Clearpool Group of New York and a director since 2013
  • Henry Mariani, 75, chairman of NLC Products Inc. of Little Rock and director since 1997
  • Robert Proost, 76, a retired A.G. Edwards executive and a director since 2011
  • R.L. Qualls, 80, retired president of Baldor Electric Co. of Fort Smith and a director since 1997
  • John Reynolds, 49, a pathologist and laboratory director for Memorial Hospital in Bainbridge, Ga., and a director since 2012
  • Sherece West-Scantlebury, 48, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and a director since 2012
  • Dan Thomas, 51, chief lending officer and president of the bank’s real estate specialties group, and a director since 2013

Other items approved during the business session of the meeting at the company’s west Little Rock headquarters were:

  • Ratifying the audit committee’s selection and appointment of the accounting firm of Crowe Horwath LLP of Oak Brook, Ill., as independent auditors for 2014. The company has performed this duty since 2006.
  • Holding an advisory, non-binding vote on the company’s executive compensation.
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