Bentonville, Arkansas, United States, January 2026 – Aileen Wilkins has started a new position as Chief People Officer at Arvest Bank, based in Bentonville, Arkansas. In this enterprise role, Wilkins will lead the bank’s people strategy for a values-driven financial institution serving associates, customers, and communities across multiple markets—driving culture, leadership development, talent, and the continued evolution of the people function to support Arvest’s long-term business strategy.
At Arvest Bank, Wilkins’ mandate centers on aligning people, culture, and capability with business priorities across a multi-market footprint. Her focus on human capital management and culture change positions her to strengthen leadership pipelines, build talent systems that scale with growth, and reinforce the values-driven foundations that community-based banking institutions rely on to serve customers and communities consistently.
Prior to joining Arvest, Wilkins spent about four years with Ignite Leadership Coaching as an Executive Coach, applying her HR and leadership experience across diverse coaching engagements. In that capacity, she partnered with senior leaders to strengthen effectiveness and organizational impact, supported professionals through career and leadership transitions, and advised leadership teams on succession planning, leadership development, and organizational dynamics—bringing candid, practical guidance aimed at sustainable performance.
Earlier, Wilkins served for about four years as Chief People Officer at GEHA Health, where she led transformation for a 2,000-employee health insurance provider. Her work included building in-house HR, communications, and public relations functions, strengthening leadership capability through strategic executive hiring, and guiding major shifts in total rewards—supporting employees through change with strong communication and engagement. She also implemented Workday HCM, enabling process modernization and a stronger foundation for talent and performance programs, and advanced a comprehensive DEI strategy, including hiring GEHA’s first DEI director.
Wilkins previously spent nearly a decade with H&R Block, culminating as Chief People Officer, reporting to the CEO and serving as the C-suite liaison to the Board Compensation Committee. In this phase, she supported executive talent decisions, compensation and succession governance, culture and engagement processes, and large-scale workforce initiatives for tens of thousands of seasonal tax professionals. Across her earlier leadership roles at H&R Block, she also drove HR operations and employee relations centers of excellence, strengthened talent assessment and succession planning, and led significant redesign efforts across field roles and hiring processes—bringing structure, consistency, and strategic discipline to large, complex people systems.
Earlier in her career, Wilkins spent about six years with Eli Lilly and Company, supporting U.S. sales and marketing and other business areas as a strategic HR partner. Her work spanned integration support, business process reengineering approaches to HR challenges, and leading large-scale sales force reorganization efforts—building experience in talent planning, change leadership, and enterprise transformation.
Education: Wilkins holds an MBA from The University of Kansas.
Arvest Bank is a community-based financial institution serving more than 110 communities across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Established in 1961, Arvest provides an extensive network of 200+ banking locations and delivers a broad range of services including loans, deposits, treasury management, credit cards, mortgage loans and mortgage servicing, alongside continued investments in digital tools and services. Arvest is also known for its commitment to the communities it serves and to attracting, hiring, and retaining a diverse group of talented people.
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