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Will Gladden may have come into banking naturally as the son of the late Arkansas banking executive King Gladden, but it wasn’t necessarily what he dreamed of doing as a child.
“When I was a little kid, I wanted to be an inventor,” Gladden said. “I wanted to build things. I always liked doing stuff with my hands.”
Gladden joined Signature Bank — the bank his father and Gary Head were forming when King Gladden died in a 2005 plane crash — after graduating from the University of Arkansas. He worked his way up through the ranks, being named president of the Fayetteville market in 2016. Gladden has a finance degree and a real estate license, and he said the dual expertise makes him better as both a banker and a broker for real estate investors. “It’s always good to see things from both sides,” Gladden said.
Gladden said banking during a pandemic was “crazy,” but he enjoys being a community banker.
“I like improving things and making things better,” Gladden said. “I get bored easily so I like change. The struggles that go along with change can be fun.”
