BancFirst approves executive changes
David Rainbolt moves from CEO to executive chairman
For the first time in a quarter-century, David Rainbolt is not the CEO of BancFirst Corp. But Rainbolt isn’t stepping down; he’s stepping up.
Directors of BancFirst Corp., the holding company for Oklahoma’s largest state-chartered bank, on Thursday approved leadership changes that had long been contemplated within the Oklahoma City-based financial firm.
“There’s nothing surprising about this to anybody in the organization,” Rainbolt said.
Rainbolt, 61, now is executive chairman of BancFirst Corp. Stepping into his former role as CEO of the holding company is David Harlow, 54, previously president of BancFirst Oklahoma City.
Also, bank CEO Dennis Brand now is chairman of the holding company’s executive committee. Darryl Schmidt, formerly director of community banking, succeeds Brand as CEO of the subsidiary bank.
BancFirst Corp. directors in March elected Rainbolt as chairman, succeeding his father and company founder Gene Rainbolt, 88, who became chairman emeritus. On Thursday, David Rainbolt became executive chairman.
Harlow and Schmidt
will report directly to David Rainbolt, who will continue to lead strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions for the firm.
‘I am involved ...’
“I am still in the chain of command. I am involved in management; I’m part of management,” Rainbolt said. “I’m inexorably tied to this place, and want to be.”
Rainbolt, who owns about 35 percent of BancFirst Corp.’s outstanding shares, isn’t giving up his corner office at Main and Broadway in downtown Oklahoma City.
“My days aren’t going to be any shorter,” said Rainbolt, who said he expects to remain active in BancFirst leadership for many years.
BancFirst is the state’s second-largest bank in terms of deposits, trailing only Tulsa-based Bank of Oklahoma. But, Brand notes that BancFirst almost certainly holds more accounts of individual Oklahomans than any other bank. The bank operates the largest network of Oklahoma offices, with more than 100 branches spread across the state.
BancFirst’s leadership team, sometimes referred to by those inside the firm as “4-D” for David (Rainbolt), David (Harlow), Dennis (Brand) and Darryl (Schmidt), will remain essentially intact, but with a shift in duties and titles.
Brand, 69, celebrated his 25th anniversary with BancFirst on May 11, a date he circled a couple of years ago as an appropriate time to step back from an active daily role in corporate leadership.
“It’s time,” Brand said. “The next generation of bank management is ready and capable. I’m totally comfortable.”
“My new role as chairman of the executive committee and oversight of bank subsidiaries will transition my time from the CEO’s daily oversight of the bank and allow time for me to mentor and provide strategic advice to Darryl, David (Harlow) and the administrative team, as needed,” he said.
BancFirst is flying high
The timing appears to be fortuitous. Harlow, 54, takes over as the company’s fortunes and stock price are flying high.
BancFirst shares, like those of many banking firms, got a boost after the November election of Donald Trump as the Federal Reserve made clear its intent to raise interest rates. The stock last month briefly topped $100 a share — an alltime high — and remains in the mid-$90 range.
In the first three months of this year, the company booked a $22 million profit, up 33 percent from the same period a year ago. Last year, BancFirst topped $7 billion in assets for the first time.
Harlow joined the company in 1999 as executive vice president and manager of commercial banking for BancFirst Oklahoma City. In 2003, he was named president of BancFirst Oklahoma City and in 2004 added the title of regional executive. He has been a director of BancFirst for three years.
Schmidt, 54, said no major changes in BancFirst’s direction are contemplated by what he termed the “evolutionary change” in leadership.
“We’re in good shape,” Schmidt said. “You can always tinker around the edges. We just need to continue that momentum.”
One of the ways David Rainbolt said BancFirst might change is to expand its footprint beyond Oklahoma’s borders into an adjacent state — a significant step for a firm that’s been purely a Sooner state operation since its founding in 1984.
“Dennis (Brand) and I have had a phenomenal 25-year run,” Rainbolt said. “There is little I would have changed. But now is the time for the next generation to take us into the future.”