SOUTHEAST
First Community Bancshares in Bluefield, Va., has promoted John M. Mendez, 45, to president and chief executive officer and Robert L. Buzzo to president of its First Community Bank subsidiary.Mr. Mendez had been chief financial officer of the corporation since 1985. He was also vice president of finance and chief administrative officer of First Community Bank.
Mr. Buzzo, 50, has worked for First Community and its predecessor since 1973, most recently as chief executive officer of the bank's Bluefield division.
E. Stephen Lilly was named chief operating officer for both the bank and holding company. Mr. Lilly, 42, had been chief operations officer of the bank since 1997. He and Mr. Buzzo share responsibility for the bank's retail operations. Both Mr. Mendez and Mr. Buzzo succeeded James L. Harrison Sr. who announced his resignation this month from the posts they now hold.
First Community has $1 billion of assets.
Verilink Corp. in Madison, Ala., has hired Ronald Sibold to be chief financial officer.Mr. Sibold, 42, was treasurer and principal liaison to Wall Street analysts at SCI Systems Inc., where he had worked for seven years.
He has 17 years of banking and corporate experience, including four years as a vice president and deputy manager in the Atlanta office of DG Bank Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank. Before that he worked in the Atlanta offices of National Australia Bank Ltd. as assistant vice president and Wachovia Corp. as a financial analyst.
Verilink is an equipment supplier to the telecommunications industry. It has $54 million of assets.
SOUTHWEST
Southwest Bank of Texas in Houston has hired E. James Lowrey Jr. for the newly created post of executive vice president and manager of private banking and Valerie B. Gibbs to be a senior vice president of commercial lending.Mr. Lowrey, 46, was senior vice president of the client advisory group in the Houston office of Chase Private Bank, where he had worked since 1976. He has 22 years of banking experience, with concentrations on commercial real estate and private banking.
Ms. Gibbs, 43, was a branch chief executive officer at Sterling Bank in Houston the past three years. At Southwest, she succeeded Brent Johnston who went to Overland Park, Kan.-based Commercial Guaranty Bancshares.
She has 17 years of banking experience, including 14 years in lending at Wells Fargo Bank and its predecessors.
Both Mr. Lowrey and Ms. Gibbs work in Southwest's Galleria office. Southwest, a subsidiary of Southwest Bancorporation of Texas, has $2.9 billion of assets.
WEST
Community West Bancshares in Goleta, Calif., has promoted Lynda Nahra to chief operating officer of its Goleta National Bank subsidiary.Ms. Nahra assumes the newly created post after being the bank's regional president for Ventura County.
Before joining Goleta National in 1997, she was an office manager for West America Industrial Bank in Sacramento, Calif. She has 30 years of banking experience.
Community West has $451 million of assets.
Greater Bay Bancorp in Palo Alto, Calif., has promoted Mark Madison to senior vice president and manager of Greater Bay Bank's San Jose office. The bank is a division of Cupertino National Bank, which is a subsidiary of Greater Bay Bancorp.Mr. Madison began at Cupertino National in 1998 as a vice president. He has 15 years of banking experience.
Greater Bay Bancorp has $3.6 billion of assets.
