Springfield First Community Bank hired Becky Scorse and Luke Fraser as senior vice presidents of commercial lending. A graduate of Missouri Southern State University with a bachelor’s in economics and finance, Scorse has 14 years of local commercial lending experience. Fraser holds a bachelor’s in finance and a Master of Business Administration from Missouri State University and has several years of commercial banking experience.
BancorpSouth promoted Jay Titus to executive vice president. Titus is a regional senior lender who oversees the bank’s Missouri region portfolio and assists clients. He has a bachelor’s in business administration from Drury University, is a graduate of Pacific Coast Banking School in Seattle and has 18 years of banking experience, with four years at BancorpSouth.
Empire Bank promoted Marita Thomas to senior vice president and residential lending manager of Empire Bank Mortgage. Thomas holds a bachelor’s in finance from MSU and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the Commercial Lending School of the Kansas-Nebraska Schools of Banking. Thomas has 20 years of banking and real estate lending experience and manages production, product and business development, education, processing and marketing for the bank’s real estate department.
Jeff Birdsell, vice president and credit officer at Old Missouri Bank, completed the Graduate School of Banking program through the University of Colorado-Boulder. The program focuses on general management, lending, leadership, and financial and human resources management. Birdsell was one of nearly 120 graduates recognized in July.
Empire Bank promoted Cathy Smith to vice president of administration and corporate secretary. She has 35 years of banking experience and is responsible for providing administrative support to the board and CEO, and leadership for the loan operations team.
Guaranty Bank promoted Krystal Kauffman to assistant vice president in her role as internal audit officer. Kauffman manages the banks audit procedures and schedule, and she also assists with external exams and audits, and trains bank personnel in performing audits. Kauffman joined Guaranty Bank in 2007. She holds a bachelor’s in accounting from Central Methodist University and an MBA from Webster University.
Empire Bank hired Sheila Falls as a mortgage loan officer. With 30 years of banking and real estate lending experience, Falls is responsible for originating and closing home loans.
Guaranty Bank promoted Matt Keeth to the newly created role of assistant vice president and special assets analyst. Keeth, who holds a finance degree from MSU and an MBA from Drury, joined Guaranty Bank in 2007 and has served as a credit analyst and loan review officer for the bank. In his new role, he helps analyze specially designated credits and implements risk reduction strategies.
Metropolitan National Bank has become a member of Lenders One Mortgage Cooperative, a St. Louis-based alliance of independent mortgage bankers and suppliers of mortgage products and services. As one of roughly 230 members of the cooperative, Metropolitan has access to more than 40 preferred industry vendors and can participate in economies of scale that boost buying power and help reduce operational costs while enhancing customer benefits.
BKD LLP has been listed for the second consecutive year on Inside Public Accounting’s Best of the Best Firms list. Firms are chosen for the unranked list based on more than 50 criteria. In the IPA 100, a separate report released in August, ranking firms on net revenue, BKD placed 10th, maintaining the same ranking it had for the 2011 list.
Jeff Layman, senior vice president, portfolio manager and wealth adviser with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s wealth management office, earned the firm’s senior portfolio manager designation. Layman completed advanced training and demonstrated competence in helping investors manage and monitor investment performance.
Kansas City-based UMB Financial Corp., the holding company for UMB Bank, was recognized by Sandler O’Neill and Partners as a top performer on the 2012 Bank and Thrift Sm-All Stars report. The report lists the 25 top performers from among 461 publicly traded U.S. banks and thrifts with market capitalization of less than $2 billion. Selection is based on criteria that measure growth, profitability, credit quality and capital strength.
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
