William R. Short, Director, is our President and Chief Executive Officer. He has more than 30 years of banking experience in metropolitan Atlanta having held various positions with Wachovia Bank, N.A., since 1976. He was most recently Senior Vice President/Group Executive and Managing Director of several highly successful Atlanta Wealth Management Teams from 2001 until he joined our company in December 2006. While at Wachovia, he also led the bank’s significant retail and business banking growth in Gwinnett County in the 1980s and 1990s. Bill is actively involved in the community, currently serving as a board member and Chairman of the Finance and Investment Committees of the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia, and is a member of the Peachtree Corners Rotary Club. Bill graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Management from Clemson University, obtained his M.B.A. degree from Duke University and has completed Management Development programs at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.