Treasury Elects Directors to CPP Banks’ Boards of Directors

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury has exercised its right to elect John S. Poelker and Guy Rounsaville, Jr. to the First Banks, Inc. (First Banks) board of directors and Gerard M. Thomchick to the Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania, Inc. (Royal Bancshares) board of directors.  As participants in Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program (CPP), First Banks and Royal Bancshares entered into securities purchase agreements with Treasury.  These agreements provide Treasury the contractual right to nominate up to two members to the board of a CPP recipient in the event that an institution misses a sixth dividend or interest payment on the preferred stock issued to Treasury.

John S. Poelker has spent more than 40 years in the financial services industry as both an executive and a consultant and has served in industry leadership positions throughout his career. From 1997 to 2005, Poelker served as the Chief Financial Officer of Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Indiana.    

Guy Rounsaville, Jr. is a lawyer with over 40 years of experience in the financial industry. He has served as the General Counsel of Wells Fargo & Company, Visa International and LaSalle Bank Corporation.  Mr. Rounsaville currently serves as the Director of Diversity at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP (Allen Matkins), a California law firm with approximately 230 attorneys.

Gerard M. Thomchick has more than 25 years of experience working in Pennsylvania’s banking sector.  He spent a number of years at First Commonwealth Financial, where he served in the role of Chief Operating Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, as well as President and Chief Executive Officer of a subsidiary bank.  He was previously Chairman of the Governance Committee of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.

Board members elected by Treasury will have the same fiduciary duties and obligations to the shareholders of the financial institutions as any other board members.  They cannot be government employees, and they will not represent the United States government.  Treasury worked with executive search firm Spencer Stuart to help identify potential directors.