SPEAKER OF WORDS, DOER OF DEEDS

By John Callahan

Though most know Arvest as the oldest bank in Arkansas and one of the largest banks in the United States, the banking operations of Arvest support and are supported in turn by numerous other divisions. These include wealth management, title and closing services and the mortgage division, the last of which has been led by President and CEO Matt Kendall since Feb. 2021.

Kendall is a Northwest Arkansas man: born in Fayetteville; raised in Rogers, and now lives in Bentonville. His only extended absence from the region came during his time at Hendrix College in Conway, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business and economics.

“I had worked for Arvest during college in their operations area,” Kendall said. “I also had a local friend whose dad was a bank president at First National Bank and Trust in Rogers and who really liked it. So, when I came back after graduating from Hendrix, I applied to become an auditor at Arvest. I was able to learn the different areas of the bank, from deposits to mortgage to wealth to IT.”

Kendall left Arvest in 1993 to join Benton County Title and Abstract, which had been partly owned by his family since 1975. While there, he learned a great deal about title operations and became both a certified public accountant and a selftaught IT specialist.

“I never had a computer class in high school or at Hendrix,” Kendall said, “but at Benton County Title, I had to learn quickly to administer their SCO Unix Network and Novell network along with the hardware. I learned by watching others who supported us from the outside and would stay up with them all night asking lots of questions. Then I consulted several other title companies on information systems and hardware installs, as well as a local CPA firm.”

When the Walton family of Walmart fame acquired WACO Title Company, previously Washington County Abstract, and brought it under Arvest, Kendall saw an opportunity to move to a bigger company and focus more heavily on IT. He was hired in 2000 as a network systems analyst to revamp and support all of WACO Title’s networks, phone systems and software systems.

Before the year was out, Kendall was promoted to chief operations officer of WACO Title and was made president and CEO in 2010. During his time in the company’s C-suite, WACO Title acquired six other title operations, grew from 40 associates at four branches to 125 associates at 17 branches, and its revenue increased by $2 million.

Kendall was brought over to the Arvest Bank - Mortgage Division in 2012 by the division’s previous President and CEO, Steven Plaisance. When Plaisance left the company, Kendall was selected to take his place. Now, he oversees everything the division owns and sets the strategic direction for mortgage lending for the bank group as a whole.

Whether at WACO Title or Arvest Mortgage, Kendall’s favorite part of the work has always been the ability it gives him to help others.

“I get a lot of joy from helping people solve problems,” Kendall said. “I really take satisfaction in helping someone get over a hurdle, complete a project or whatever it may be. I helped some of the folks that I have led or mentored over the years grow as associates and leaders and get into higher positions with the company. I love to help them gain success.

“It could also be a borrower. We often have to think outside of the box to make a loan, especially if another bank isn’t able to help, and Arvest can come through and help with homeownership or refinancing to save money.”

Kendall’s business philosophy goes hand in hand with his desire to help others. He lives by the motto, “Be a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.” He listed humility, integrity, hard work and effort as the most important traits in a leader, quoting the age-old saying, “surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.”

“I’m blessed to have the best leadership team that I’ve ever worked with,” Kendall said. “That’s what makes our division and my leadership a success: rely- ing on those leaders underneath myself. We have a very strong work ethic, and a strong bond to make sure that we’re taking care of our customers and associates in an exemplary manner.”

Throughout Kendall’s career, technology has always been a major area of emphasis. With his personal interest and skills in the field, he frequently gets directly involved when he sees a vendor or project that gives him an opportunity to implement new IT solutions to increase effectiveness and efficiency.

“I think my children respect my technology acumen,” Kendall said. “I know there are a lot of parents that get teased because they don’t understand technology, but that’s one thing that I try to stay current on because it drives our future.”

The mortgage business relies on many manual processes that result in long cycle times to close a loan for purchasing a house or refinance. Kendall is eager to improve and automate those processes where possible, with the goal of bringing a cycle time of a month or longer down to just a few weeks.

Arvest Mortgage has already taken significant steps in that direction by allowing borrowers to do more through technology. Borrowers can send in documents electronically, and then sign those documents and get credentials verified via a “remote online notary” in a video call with a realtor, loan officer or anyone else who needs to be present.

Outside of work, Kendall is heavily involved in nonprofit organizations. He has previously served on the boards of the Open Avenues Foundation, United Way of Northwest Arkansas and Benton County Project Lifesaver, and he is a board member of the Teen Action Support Center, which helps teens in Northwest Arkansas with poverty, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, family issues and more.

Kendall is deeply passionate about his involvement in a nonprofit he helped to establish, the JMC Foundation. JMC is named after Jackson McIntosh Carter, who was a close friend of Kendall’s eldest son and like a son to Kendall himself but died after a bone marrow surgery to treat his leukemia resulted in an infection.

“I wear a wristband every day to work. It says, ‘Be courageous, have hope and be kind.’ Even though he passed away his senior year of high school, Jackson always lived by that motto of helping others,” Kendall said. “There was never a stranger that he left out because of anything. He was always for the underdog. He always wanted to help people; it didn’t matter whether it was someone from church or anybody on the street. He had the kindest heart I’ve ever seen as a servant leader.”

Kendall joined others whose lives had been touched by Carter to put together the JMC Foundation in his honor. Since then, the organization has grown to offer three scholarships for football, entrepreneurship and kindness.

“For the kindness award, we really dig in hard and rely on the schools to give us somebody that has just gone over and above and beyond in an act of kindness. It can’t be just a little act of kindness, it has to be something moving and supportive.”

Last year’s winner was Emma Flager of Rogers High School. During the 2021-2022 school year, Flager learned that a classmate was seriously ill and organized a car parade to bring cheer to the student and his family. When he later passed away, she raised funds to support his family through a bake sale.

Kendall still has a long career ahead of him, whether it be improving the world of mortgaging through IT or supporting his community through nonprofits. Whatever he does, it can be certain that he will strive to help others as a speaker of words and as a doer of deeds.

Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette. She received her undergraduate degree in political science from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

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