Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will have its blowout shareholders’ meeting on June 2 in Fayetteville at the University of Arkansas’ Bud Walton Arena, as usual. On April 20, Home BancShares Inc. had its usual gathering for shareholders, which might be better described as a party, at Centennial Valley Golf & Country Club in Conway.
But one shareholder tradition quietly disappeared this year: Simmons First National Corp.’s annual banquet at the Pine Bluff Convention Center, catered by the Pine Bluff Country Club and often featuring background music by the Pine Bluff High School symphony, is no more.
Instead, the parent company of Simmons Bank held what spokesman Rex Nelson called “a short morning meeting” on April 19 at the headquarters building on Main Street in Pine Bluff.
When asked if this kind of shareholders’ meeting — which is really the rule among most public companies — is the new normal, Nelson responded, “Yes.”
Speaking of HBI
In conjunction with its annual meeting, Home BancShares added two new members to its board, including its first woman director.
She is Karen Garrett, managing partner of Hudson Cisne & Co. LLP, the Little Rock CPA firm.
The other new member is Jim Rankin Jr., president of Trinity Development Co. and Four Winds Inc., family-owned real estate development and management companies in Faulkner County.