GAINESVILLE - Peach State Bank & Trust recently marked 10 years of operation at its annual stockholder meeting on Monday, April 27, the same date that the locally owned and operated bank opened for business in 2005.
Peach State kicked off its decade celebration at the bank meeting with a 10-candle birthday cake that was ceremoniously lighted by several board members and employees who had been with the bank since its founding.
“We are so proud of the success of Peach State Bank,” said Ron Quinn, the bank’s president and CEO. “And what better way to kick off our 10th anniversary celebration than to recognize our dedicated longtime staff and board members.”
Quinn delivered a “state of the bank” address at the stockholders’ meeting, reporting increasing growth in business loans and deposits, particularly in this year’s first quarter of operation. Peach State’s total assets now total over $150 million. Deposits have reached $130 million.
“With the resurging housing market and the continued growth in the medical sector led by the Northeast Georgia Medical Center, the future of Peach State Bank has never looked better,” said William House, the bank’s chairman of the board. “We are living and working in an area where the economy is rebounding from the recession and on track toward the strongest growth in several years.”
In other business, local businessmen Joe Hatfield, Bobby Lawson, Wesley Martin and Steve McKibbon were all re-elected to another three-year term on the Peach State board of directors following a vote at the stockholders’ meeting and an official tally of proxy ballots.
Led by Chairman Bill House, Peach State’s board of directors includes CEO and President Ron Quinn; Stewart Teaver, president of City Plumbing and Electric Supply; Steve McKibbon, commercial real estate developer; Bobby Lawson, a retired attorney and investor; Alvin Gibson, president and CEO of Gibson Dental Designs; Joe Hatfield, vice chairman of Fieldale Farms; Superior Court Judge Andy Fuller; Dr. Clifton Hastings, a cardiothoracic surgeon with the Northeast Georgia Medical Center; and Wesley Martin, CEO/CFO of Jake Martin & Sons Contractors.
Based on Washington Street in downtown Gainesville, Peach State is a community bank with more than 25 employees. It operates from a main office focused solely on the Gainesville-Hall County market.
Peach State’s Community Development Board is led by Abit Massey, president emeritus of the Georgia Poultry Federation; Nancy Norton, vice president and relocation director of the Norton Agency; Gary Funk with the local office of Georgia Power; John Wright, vice president of operations at Fieldale Farms; John Melvin, retired attorney and partner with Stewart Melvin & Frost; and Jack Frost, owner of Memorial Park Funeral Homes.
