12 People You Need to Know: Mark Bybee

Q&A | June 15

Why You Need to Know Mark: After leading an investor group in the $14 million acquisition last year of Systematic Savings Bank, the president and CEO of newly formed Arlo Bank has his sights set on rapidly growing assets and adding a south-side branch.
Position: President and CEO, Arlo Bank
Age: 50
Education: Master’s in business and bachelor’s in business, Southwest Baptist University
Career: President, OakStar Bank; executive vice president and senior lending officer, OakStar Bank; senior vice president, Commerce Bank; and vice president, U.S. Bank

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With a nearly 25-year career in the banking industry, Mark Bybee says he was ready last year for a new challenge, which resulted in the formation of Arlo Bank and a multimillion-dollar capital raise.

Bybee led investor group Arlo Financial Holdings Inc. in the October 2024 acquisition of Springfield-based Systematic Savings Bank, a deal which closed for around $14 million. In the process, Bybee became president and CEO of Arlo Bank, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arlo Financial. Additionally, he says more than 300 investors contributed to the capital raise that closed in January, bringing in $40 million.

With a downtown branch in operation and a south-side branch under construction, Bybee says growth for the 20-employee Arlo Bank is in his crosshairs.

“We’ve almost doubled the size of the bank [assets] already in the six months we’ve been open. We’re about $130 million in assets and we were about $60 million or so when we closed,” he says, referring to the Systematic acquisition. “It really was a great mesh in terms of the two groups coming together.”

A large part of that growth, Bybee says, is tied to relationships in banking he and other team leaders have accrued in their careers. Like several other of the company’s employees, Bybee came to Arlo from OakStar Bank, where he worked for nearly 15 years, including the last two years as president.

“It’s a unique challenge, for sure,” he says, adding he’s motivated to bolster Arlo’s presence in the community it calls home. “There’s a real need in Springfield for local banks. I know there’s a lot of banks around, but there’s not very many locally owned banks.”

While Arlo has roughly $100 million in deposits, Bybee says most of those are coming from businesses.

“We’re very much what I’d call a business bank. We’re mainly focused on commercial banking, business banking,” he says, noting that’s where his and many of Arlo Bank’s employees’ expertise resides. 

Bybee says he intends to utilize Arlo’s newly raised capital to grow the bank’s assets over the next several years, with a short-term goal of $500 million.

“I’m not saying it’s easy, but I think it’s very doable,” he says, noting when he started at OakStar as its senior lending officer, the bank’s assets were around $80 million. Today, OakStar’s assets exceed $1.4 billion, according to Springfield Business Journal list research.

As for Arlo Bank’s future branch at 4109 S. National Ave., Bybee estimates an early September completion date for construction. Declining to disclose startup costs for the new location, he says the current downtown branch at 318 South Ave. will remain open.

“We may change some of the hours and may do more of the drive-thru banking kind of thing as opposed to a full operational branch at some point,” he says. “Some of that’s yet to be determined.”