Southwest Bancorp (OKSB) in Stillwater, Okla., has hired Mark W. Funke as its new president and chief executive.
Funke, who recently served as market president for Bank of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, is expected to join Southwest on Oct. 1. He will succeed Rick Green, who has led the company since 1999, as president and chief executive of the company and its two banks. Green will serve as president emeritus from until Jan. 31.
In April, the company announced Green's planned retirement, adding that it had hired Fraser Keating Associates to conduct a national search for a new leader.
Funke joined Bank of Oklahoma in 1984 and has served as the Oklahoma City president since 1997.
"While I leave an institution I have a great deal of respect for, I am excited to join this organization with roots dating back 120 years," Funke said in a press release Wednesday. "I look forward to working with the bank's leadership as we expand on the success the bank has enjoyed, and we look to the future, building an even stronger institution for our customers and shareholders."
Southwest has had a transformational year even before recruiting its new CEO. The company shuffled several executive titles at the time of Green's retirement announcement and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency lifted a formal agreement against its Stillwater National Bank and Trust. The company also resumed paying dividends and it redeemed the $70 million of preferred stock it issued the Treasury Department as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
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