FSGBank, National Association, the wholly-owned community bank subsidiary of First Security Group, Inc., announced Robert Baird as senior vice president – market executive for the Knoxville, Jefferson City and Cookeville markets. FSGBank also announced the establishment of a dedicated investor commercial real estate (“iCRE”) position. David Haynes, who previously served as the Knoxville market executive, has assumed the new role with enhanced responsibility of iCRE throughout all FSGBank markets.
Mr. Baird joins FSGBank from First Century Bank in Tazewell, Tenn., where he served as executive vice president and chief lending officer. Mr. Baird brings over 35 years of banking experience, including nearly 25 years with SunTrust Bank in the Knoxville market. Joining Mr. Baird are two additional commercial banking officers, Tommy Schmid and Jared Palazzola. Mr. Schmid and Mr. Palazzola have over 35 years of collective banking experience.
“With the addition of Robert, Tommy and Jared to our existing team, we believe we can substantially grow our market share in Knoxville,” said Michael Kramer, president and CEO of FSGBank. “While we are headquartered in Chattanooga, Knoxville is an equally important market for our long-term growth and success.”
Mr. Haynes, managing director – Investor Commercial Real Estate, has nearly 40 years of banking experience, including the last 12 years at FSGBank. Mr. Haynes will coordinate the origination, structure, and monitoring of all new investor commercial real estate loans and certain existing iCRE relationships.
“David brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his extensive banking career which includes leadership roles in credit, special assets and commercial banking,” said Mr. Kramer. “As the economy continues to recover and grow, we are once again seeing investor commercial real estate transactions throughout our markets. With a dedicated resource of David’s stature, we believe we can identify iCRE transactions that, with proper structuring and monitoring, can fit within our risk parameters.”
“We previously announced various niche lending initiatives that will enhance our ability to achieve our desired loan growth,” said Mr. Kramer. “While the niche lending initiatives are important, our core East Tennessee markets are robust and can provide strong organic loan growth. We believe today’s announcements strengthens our ability to achieve that growth in Knoxville and throughout our footprint.”