Remember how veteran Arkansas advertising pro Don Hale decided to take up bankers’ hours last year, joining Citizens Bank of Batesville?
Well, he’s back in the workaday world, having left his marketing post as a senior vice president of the bank a couple of months ago.
The move came less than a year after he revealed that he was turning over leadership of the Diamond Agency, his family-owned business in El Dorado, to longtime employee Carol McDade. That news drew extra notice last October because it came at the same time as an announcement that Kirby Williams, another veteran marketer and longtime friend of Hale’s, was selling his Hot Springs advertising firm and joining Stone Bank of Mountain View.
Hale and Citizens Bank President and CEO Phil Baldwin both confirmed Hale’s exit in brief conversations Thursday.
“It just wasn’t working out,” Baldwin said, adding that the bank was reviewing its marketing efforts. “We’re not replacing that position.”
He also noted that Chuck Jones, a widely known communications executive who was once business editor of the Arkansas Democrat, remains at the bank as a senior vice president. Hale, who had relocated to Batesville, was reportedly headed back to El Dorado, but Baldwin offered no details. “Don is really the person you should talk to.”
Reached on his cellphone in the middle of a meeting, Hale confirmed that he was no longer with the bank, but said he couldn’t discuss the situation, “not right now.” By press time Thursday, he had not gotten back to Arkansas Business.
The Diamond Agency is the longtime publisher of the El Dorado Insider’s Guide, Arkadelphia Life and the Clark County Adventure Guide.
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