David Bartlett will retire in January as president of Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff and as chief banking officer for its banking subsidiary, Simmons First National Bank, the publicly traded company announced Monday.
Barry Ledbetter, a 30-year employee who is currently chair of Simmons Bank’s central/northeast Arkansas region, will assume the duties of chief banking officer.
Simmons also announced that that Matt Reddin will assume the new position of chief lending officer and Adam Mitchell will fill the new position of chief retail officer.
Simmons is also consolidating the central/northeast, south and northwest regions into a statewide region, and Freddie Black — currently chair of the south Arkansas region — will be its chairman. James Stobaugh, currently chair of the northwest region, will continue to lead operations in northwest Arkansas and will report to Black.
Bartlett was a founder and the CEO of Alliance Bank of Hot Springs, which Simmons acquired in 2004. Bartlett was chairman of the Arkansas Bankers Association in 2013-14.
“David has played a key role in structuring Simmons Bank for continued growth and success,” said Simmons CEO George Makris said in announcing Bartlett’s retirement. “He led the transition from an eight-bank holding company to our current organization. We’ll soon be a one-bank holding company approaching $8 billion in assets. David will be missed.”
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