Friends of Traditional Banking is pleased to announce Joye Hunt as the newly elected chair of the Executive Committee, with Virginia Varela as vice chair. Ty Abston, who has served as chair of the board for the 2017-2019 term, becomes immediate past chair.

“I have been honored to lead FOTB over the last two years. During this period, we had another very successful election cycle and continued to build on our past successes,” said Abston, who also serves as chairman of the board and CEO of Guaranty Bank & Trust. “ Joye will provide strong leadership to continue our positive momentum. FOTB is becoming a very powerful weapon in the fight to preserve traditional community banking.”

Hunt, who has served on the FOTB Executive Committee and previously represented Kentucky on FOTB’s Nationwide Banker Board, is also the SVP-CFO for PBK Bank in Stanford, Ky. With more than 30 years of community banking experience, she has been long involved with the Kentucky Bankers Association and has a passion for traditional community banks and the people they serve.

“I want to thank Ty for his amazing leadership, commitment, and guidance of our organization. FOTB has been elevated to new levels of success,” Hunt said. “With the rapid decline in numbers and presence of our community banks, FOTB is vitally important to the survival and fight for our remaining community banks and the communities and customers they serve. I am honored and consider it a personal privilege to be working with the FOTB teams in this noble cause.”

Varela, the new vice chair, is a seasoned banker with over 30 years of successful community banking experience, both as a bank executive and as a former banking regulator. She currently serves at the President and CEO of Golden Pacific Bank in Sacramento, California, as a Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and on the Executive Committee of FOTB.

“I graciously thank Ty Abston for his service and for all of the members that give so generously of their time to support our banking industry and the wellbeing of our national economy,” said Varela. “I also congratulate Joye Hunt as our organization’s new chairwoman. We are confident she will enthusiastically lead our organization forward in the coming years.”