FBNC First Bancorp

Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta) today announced the results of the 2024 director election. The Bank conducted an election to fill the member directorships for North Carolina and Virginia, an independent directorship and a public interest independent directorship. Each director-elect will serve a four-year term commencing on January 1, 2025, and ending December 31, 2028.

Suzanne DeFerie was elected to fill the member directorship representing the state of North Carolina and Scott Harvard was elected to fill the member directorship designated for the state of Virginia. Rodney Hood was elected to fill the independent directorship and Susan Dewey was elected to fill the public interest independent directorship. 

“We are excited to welcome Rodney Hood to the board as an independent director and know his experience will greatly benefit the board and our members,” said FHLBank Atlanta chair of the board of directors, Thornwell Dunlap. “We are also pleased to have directors DeFerie, Harvard and Dewey return to the board and continue representing members across our district and their communities.”

Ms. DeFerie has served on the FHLBank Atlanta board of directors since 2015, including four years as Finance Committee Chair and one year as Audit Committee Chair. Director DeFerie currently serves as Vice Chair of the board of directors and Executive Committee. She is currently a member of the board of First Bank, a subsidiary of First Bancorp in Southern Pines, North Carolina (NASDAQ-FBNC). She was previously president and chief executive officer of Asheville Savings Bank, S.S.B. in Asheville, North Carolina and its holding company, ASB Bancorp, Inc., when the bank and holding company were acquired by First Bancorp. Prior to becoming president and chief executive officer of Asheville Savings Bank and ASB Bancorp, Inc., Ms. DeFerie was the bank’s executive vice president and chief financial officer for 16 years. She is active in the Asheville community, currently serving as Vice Chair of the Community Betterment Foundation of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the Asheville Merchants’ Fund and member of the Board of ANC Healthcare, as well as past board chair of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County. 

Mr. Harvard has served on the FHLBank Atlanta board since 2017, where he served as Chair of the Governance and Compensation Committee in 2022 and currently serves as Chair of the Enterprise Risk Management Committee (2023 –2024). He was a director for FHLBank Atlanta from 2003 to 2012, serving as chairman from 2007-2012. He has served as president, chief executive officer, and director of First National Corporation (NASDAQ - FXNC) since 2011. He was president, chief executive officer, and director of First Bank, an independent Virginia community bank, from 2011 to 2015 and chief executive officer and director of First Bank since 2015. He was previously on the board of the Virginia Association of Community Banks, is a past chairman of the Virginia Bankers Association (VBA) and has served on the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks.

Ms. Dewey is the former chief executive officer of Virginia Housing and joined the FHLBank Atlanta board in January 2024. While leading Virginia Housing, a $10 billion organization devoted to helping Virginians attain affordable housing, Ms. Dewey served on FHLBank Atlanta’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council, the Fannie Mae Housing Impact Advisory Committee, and the National Association of Realtors Housing Opportunity Advisory Board. She was also the past chair of the National Council of State Housing Agencies and a founding member/chair of Housing Forward Virginia, as well as many other boards. Ms. Dewey was previously the State Treasurer of Virginia for four years, where she was responsible for all operations of the Department of Treasury and Treasury Board. She currently serves on several boards, including the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the National Housing Conference Advisory Council, the William and Mary Real Estate Foundation, and VCDC (Virginia’s largest nonprofit investor in LIHTC properties).

Mr. Hood is the former Chair of the Board of the National Credit Union Association (NCUA), where he was responsible for ensuring effective supervision and regulation of nearly 5,000 credit unions with assets exceeding $2 trillion. In this role he also oversaw the $16.7 billion National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund and $20 billion Central Liquidity Fund, ensuring sound financial accountability and stability. He was previously NCUA’s vice chair, focusing on enterprise risk management and comprehensive risk management strategies and the creation of the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Loan Guarantee Program, which stabilized the credit union system following the collapse of several large corporate credit unions during the Great Recession. Mr. Hood has nearly 25 years of banking within in FHLBank Atlanta’s district with GE Capital, NationsBank (now Bank of America), Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company.

Mr. Hood is also an independent director on the boards of ZEST AI, POSH AI, ModernFI, and DefenseStorm, firms focused on cybersecurity and the use of artificial intelligence and technology in the financial industry. He recently served as board chair, audit committee chair, and board member of NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit focused on affordable housing and community development.

About FHLBank AtlantaFHLBank Atlanta offers competitively-priced financing, community development grants, and other banking services to help member financial institutions make affordable home mortgages and provide economic development credit to neighborhoods and communities. The Bank’s members—its shareholders and customers—are commercial banks, credit unions, savings institutions, community development financial institutions, and insurance companies located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. FHLBank Atlanta is one of 11 district Banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Since 1990, the FHLBanks have awarded approximately $9.1 billion in Affordable Housing Program funds, assisting more than 1.2 million households.

For more information, visit our website at www.fhlbatl.com.

Contact: Sheryl Touchtonstouchton@fhlbatl.com404.888.8105