Noel Ellis Email and Phone Number

Came to this institution for the investment opportunity, and to work with a new management team to clean up a bank with a high risk loan profile. I have overseen the reduction in ADC concentrations, which was 453% of risk-based capital in 2007 to the current 86%. We have taken an ACI ratio that reached 183% as a result of the concentrations to the existing 135% in the past twelve months, with an achievable projection of 100% by year-end.I was initially responsible for writing and implementing all new credit policies to manage both underwriting risk and portfolio concentration risks at the bank. We were ahead of the curve on concentration identification and stress-testing, and have been complimented by the regulators on our risk management systems, despite the current credit quality issues. I have historically had a great relationship with regulators as the liaison with them over the past 18 years, including the FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve.I oversee our Special Assets Department, which has successfully sold over $10MM in ORE in the past three years at a loss to the current book value of only 2%. Our group is especially proactive in managing problem loans prior to becoming non-performing as evidenced by the upgrade of over $12MM in substandard loans this year.

Began work there as General Auditor, having gone there as a practicing CPA doing bank audits. At that time the total assets of the bank were approximately $600MM. I later became the Chief Credit Officer in 1995. My initial responsibility included the consolidation of a 10 bank holding company into a single bank HC, assuring that credit culture and policies were consistent across the platform. During my time there, we enhanced technological credit tools, began a credit training curriculum, and maintained sound underwriting standards at all levels.At the time I left to move to Savannah, total assets of the holding company had increased to $2.7 billion, primarily through acquisitions from 1997 to 2004. Our footprint stretched from Macon, GA to just north of Tampa, FL and just west of Jacksonville, FL. This area was served with approximately 75 lenders with a maximum loan authority of only $500K. Our credit teams were heavily responsible for underwriting the portfolio. Like other banks in FL, we had exposure to ADC, but the bank has never suffered being put under a formal enforcement action due to strong underwriting processes and credit culture.