First Bancorp in Troy, N.C., has formed a board-level executive search committee to find a successor to its 75-year-old president and chief executive officer, James H. "Jimmie" Garner.
The $1.6 billion-asset company set no timetable. Its chairman, David Burns, said Mr. Garner would keep his jobs during the search and stay for a while after a successor is named, to ensure continuity.
In a press release issued late Friday, the chairman of the search committee, David Bruton, said it is looking at a number of internal candidates but would also consider outsiders.
Mr. Garner is also the president and CEO of the 70-year-old First Bank. He joined First Bancorp in 1969 and was named its president and chief executive officer in 1995.
"It's time for the board of directors to go through an orderly process of planning for new leadership," he said in the press release. First Bank has 60 branches, in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina.
