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Regional Banking Powerhouse, Bank of OZK, Details Growth in Uncertain Landscape in New Family Enterprise USA Podcast
Bank OZK CEO George Gleason Speaks with Pat Soldano of Family Enterprise USA about Navigating Tariffs, Taxes for Family Businesses
In a new podcast from Family Enterprise USA, Bank of OZK Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Gleason talks with host Pat Soldano on how the growing regional bank is navigating tariffs, taxes, and the uncertain economics affecting regional family-owned businesses.
In the podcast, available at FEUSA.com, Soldano, President of Family Enterprise USA and Policy and Taxation Group, discusses with Gleason the journey of the bank’s rapid growth to over $41 billion in assets, 3,000 employees, and over 250 offices in nine states.
In the episode, Gleason unpacks the many programs and services the bank is offering family-owned businesses in its lower midwestern markets.
“This is the most uncertain time I’ve ever experienced,” says Gleason. “But we embrace turbulence and uncertainty because it’s the time of greatest opportunity,” he says.
Purchased in 1979 by the then 25-year-old lawyer Gleason, Bank OZK in the last 46 years has grown from a small community bank into a nationally recognized leader in the financial services industry. Bank OZK, originally known as Bank of Ozark, dates to 1903 when it started as a small community bank in Jasper, Arkansas. When Gleason purchased the bank, it had two branches, 28 employees, and $28 million in assets.
“We’ve been through a lot of economic cycles and to thrive during tough times you need three ingredients,” Gleason says. “First you need great leadership with a vision, next you need to be well capitalized to take advantage of the opportunities, and third you need to have enough liquidity to deploy the right resources.”
The podcast is part of a series of podcasts and webcasts focused on the critical issues facing family-owned businesses and produced by Family Enterprise USA, advocates for family-owned businesses.
Family Businesses Top Employer
According to research, America’s family-owned businesses contribute $7.7 trillion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product, accounting for 83.3 million jobs, or 59 percent of the country’s private workforce.
“If you don’t know Bank OZK, it’s a very interesting story of growth,” said Soldano. “But the bank also is working with family businesses to help them manage in these uncertain times,” she said. “Speaking with people like George Gleason provides valuable insights for family-owned businesses and family office managers, and it helps them navigate difficult economic landscapes and prepare for transitioning to the next generation of leaders within their companies and successful families.”
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The need for fact-based reporting of issues important to family owned businesses and protecting a lifetime of savings has never been greater. Now more than ever, successful families and family owned businesses are under fire. That's why Family Enterprise USA is passionately working to increase the awareness of issues important to family owned businesses built on hard work, while continuing to strengthen our presence on Capitol Hill. The issues we fight for or against with Congress in Washington DC include high income tax rates, possible elimination of valuation discounts, increase in capital gains tax, enactment of a wealth tax, and the continued burden of the gift tax, estate tax and generation skipping tax.
Family Enterprise USA promotes generationally owned family business creation, growth, viability, and sustainability by advocating for family businesses and their lifetime of savings with Congress in Washington DC. Since 2007, Family Enterprise USA has represented and celebrated all sizes, professions and industries of family-owned enterprises and multi-generational employers. It is a bi-partisan 501.c3 organization. Family foundations can donate.
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