MIDWEST
Citizens Republic Bancorp of Flint, Mich., has hired Arthur G. Heise as its general auditor and an executive vice president of the company and its $7.5 billion-asset Citizens Bank.
For the past three years Mr. Heise had been the managing director of business risk and control at CitiMortgage Inc., an O'Fallon, Mo., unit of Citigroup Inc.
Before that he had been the director of corporate risk services for UMB Financial Corp. of Kansas City, Mo. Still earlier he had held chief auditing jobs at Mercantile Bancorp. and Valley Bancorp.
SOUTHEASTFirst Charter Corp. of Charlotte said Charles A. Caswell has resigned as its chief financial officer but will remain with the $4.9 billion-asset company until Aug. 17 to help with the transition to an as-yet-unnamed successor.
Sheila Stoke, First Charter's controller, has been named its principal financial officer on an interim basis. Matthew Carson, the director of strategic initiatives, will lead management reporting, balance-sheet management, and treasury matters until a new CFO is named.
Tidelands Bancshares Inc. of Mount Pleasant, S.C., has hired Thomas H. Lyles as its chief administrative officer and an executive vice president.
Mr. Lyles was the president and chief operating officer of People's Community Capital Corp. and its People's Community Bank. (First Citizens Bancorp. Inc. of Columbia bought People's Community in 2005.)
Before that he had held a variety of jobs at Carolina Southern Bank — including chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and corporate secretary — and at Bank of America.
Tidelands Bancshares owns the $336 million-asset Tidelands Bank.
Citizens Community Bank of South Hill, Va., has hired James R. Black as its chief financial officer.
He succeeded John Joachim, who has retired from the $134 million-asset bank.
Mr. Black was the CFO at First Liberty National Bank of Washington. (WashingtonFirst Bank bought First Liberty Bancorp Inc. last year.)
Before that he had been the CFO of Fidelity and Trust Bank of Bethesda, Md., and, earlier, at Metro-County Bank of Virginia in Richmond.
Still earlier he had been a commercial bank examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond from 1994 to 2000.
Franklin Bank of Houston has promoted Kelley C. Lee to managing director for east Texas and named him an executive vice president.
He succeeded Rusty Workman, who has resigned.
For the past two years Mr. Lee had been the product director for community bank lending, retail investment sales, and cash management services.
He joined the $5.5 billion-asset bank in 2005, when its parent, Franklin Bank Corp., bought First National Bank of Athens. He had been an executive vice president and the chief lending officer at First National for 14 years.
SOUTHWESTUnited Western Bancorp Inc. of Denver has hired Jeffrey R. Leventhal as its general counsel, its secretary, and a senior vice president.
He succeeded Theodore J. Abariotes, who has left the $2.1 billion-asset company.
Mr. Leventhal had worked for 12 years at First Data Corp., most recently as the chief operating officer of its govOne Solutions LP. Before joining First Data he had been an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, a New York law firm.
WESTFirst Federal Bank of California in Santa Monica has hired two executives from National Bank of California.
R. Douglas Spiro Jr. has been named a senior vice president at the $9.3 billion-asset unit of FirstFed Financial Corp. and the head of sales and marketing for its commercial banking group. He had been a commercial lending team leader at National Bank of California. Before that he had been a commercial credit relationship manager at Marathon National Bank, now Pacific Western Bank.
Alan Melikian, who had been a credit portfolio underwriter at National Bank of California, has been named a vice president at First Federal and will structure credit facilities and maintain asset quality for its commercial banking group.
