El Dorado advertising executive Don Hale had a job opportunity at a bank, so he called a friend for advice. That friend was Hot Springs marketing pro Kirby Williams, who as fate had it was just announcing a banking job of his own.
News circulated simultaneously last month that Hale and Williams were stepping back from their firms to become marketing chiefs at banks — Hale as a senior vice president with Citizens Bank of Batesville, where he’ll be relocating soon, and Williams as senior vice president with Stone Bank of Mountain View, working out of Little Rock. He’ll also be moving. (His wife, Clare Thomas Williams, is from Little Rock and his two daughters live there.)
“Yes, Don Hale and I have been conspiring for years and we finally figured out how to dominate the north central Arkansas financial industry,” Williams joked in an email. More seriously, he said he and Hale had been close for years. But his move, he said, was sealed long ago and only revealed last month.
“I started working with the bank as a consultant a year and a half ago,” said Williams, 62, who began his career at First National Bank in Little Rock in 1977. “I’ve been working full-time with the bank since Jan. 1, but Stephanie [Alderdice] and I didn’t want a big deal made of it.
Alderdice bought Kirby & Co., Williams’ Hot Springs advertising and social media firm, but no financial details of the private transaction were revealed.
“The thing with Don was just a coincidence, but he did call me; he wanted to get my perspective,” Williams said.
Hale said he “wanted to visit with Kirby about this opportunity because he started in banks. We’re close friends and I think we have similar styles.”
Hale, who didn’t directly state his age but was 39 in 1995 when he was an Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 honoree, is giving up leadership of the Diamond Agency, his family-owned company in El Dorado, turning over reins to account manager Carol McDade.
Both men have strong confidence in their successors. “I’m leaving Diamond in capable hands,” said Hale, who grew up in El Dorado and returned after graduating from the University of Arkansas. “Carol has been with me 20 years, and she has all the capabilities to take over seamlessly. Kirby and I both have good people, and that probably did play a role in our being comfortable with all this.”
Hale said that Phil Baldwin, Citizens Bank’s CEO, lured him with a vision for what he plans to build, “and I wanted to be part of his team.”
Hale said his son Clark, a recent Henderson State University graduate, would be taking a visible role at Diamond, learning under McDade.
Williams, 62, said he picked a peak time to sell Kirby & Co., which will keep its name for now, to a woman he described as “brilliant” at social media. The purchase will be paid out over four years, with Williams on retainer.
In the new job, he’s excited to work with Stone Bank CEO Marnie Oldner, CTO Bruce Upton and President Nick Roach. The Mountain View bank, renamed from Ozark Heritage Bank last year with Williams’ help, has a branch in White Hall, management offices in Little Rock and plans for a banking center in Harrison. “We’re collecting ideas on how to build a perfect bank,” he said.
Alderdice, 35, was a championship coach of the Western Kentucky University Speech and Debate Team before moving to Hot Springs, where her husband, Corey Alderdice, is director of the Arkansas School for Math, Science & Arts.
She says the Kirby name is widely recognized. “Given Kirby’s outstanding reputation, I didn’t want to move away from ‘Kirby & Co.’ from the get-go.” Her first goal is to keep happy clients like the Hot Springs Advertising & Promotion Commission and the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, then to grow the firm’s digital imprint.
McDade, 57, an “El Dorado girl” and Southern Arkansas University graduate, said she’s known Hale “as far back as I can remember” and will hold the course he set. “We all wear a lot of hats around here,” she said, praising her “ground crew” of about six employees and “a lot of ancillary folks.”
The agency is changing with the times, focusing on digital and social media along with print publications like the El Dorado Insider’s Guide, Arkadelphia Life and the Clark County Adventure Guide.
“Don and his family have instilled confidence in me,” she said. “I pride myself on loyalty – married nearly 40 years and working here almost 20. Most of my friends have been lifelong. What I lack in ability I make up for in loyalty and determination.”