By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Dan R. Williams, president and chief operating officer of F&M Bank, will retire from his duties at the bank effective Dec. 31, 2009.
Williams, who will be 63 in May and has been with F&M for almost 40 years, will remain in his positions as president and chief executive officer of F&M Investment Services until his full retirement in May 2011.
He’ll also stay on the board of directors of F&M Financial Corp., F&M Bank and F&M Investment Services, the bank’s investment advisory subsidiary. In addition, he will continue as executive vice president of the holding company, F&M Financial Corporation.
“The bank has just completed a good year in 2008, and 2009 will be our 100th anniversary, my own 40th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of my presidency,” Williams said.
“I couldn’t help but notice that there may be some significance in all those zeroes aligning in the same year, plus the succession team we assembled is ready to step up.”
When Williams steps down from his F&M Bank post on Dec. 31, J. Steven Fisher, now senior executive vice president, will become the bank’s new president.
He will be joined by an executive team of five others (see accompanying story) who together have 131 years of banking experience, not counting Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul Fisher’s 49 years with F&M.
Williams said the moves are consistent with a management succession plan that he and Paul Fisher put together 10 years ago.
Management succession plans serve two purposes, Williams said. One is to be prepared for catastrophic events; the other, to accommodate natural transitions.
“I personally appreciate Dan’s hard work, his contributions to the success of F&M, his loyalty to the company and his personal integrity,” Paul Fisher said.
“Maintaining all of these at a very high level for 40 years is not an easy thing to do, and it speaks directly to his total character as a man. I’m thankful for the relationship we have enjoyed over these years and for the success we’ve accomplished together.”
While having less day-to-day bank management responsibility, Williams said he would remain “very active” in his other roles and helping the management team make a smooth transition.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have spent my entire career with a financially sound, first-class banking institution such as F&M,” Williams said. “It’s been a great ride, and now it’s time to move on to the next phase of my life.”
A graduate of Appalachian State University, Williams began his career at F&M Bank as a management trainee in 1969. He served in numerous capacities before being named president and chief operating officer in 1989.
During his 40 years, Williams has been instrumental in leading F&M Bank’s growth from one community bank office in Granite Quarry with $7 million in assets to 11 banks in Rowan and Cabarrus counties with assets of $675 million.
F&M is the No. 1 bank in Rowan County in terms of deposits with a 25.5 percent share of the market.
The bank will celebrate its 100th anniversary July 14.
Asked what he is proudest of over his F&M career, Williams didn’t hesitate.
“We started in dead last and finished first,” he said, looking back at F&M’s growth among banks in Rowan County. “And the way we did it.”
F&M grew one bank at a time ó a steady approach Paul Fisher often likens to three yards and a cloud of dust in football.
“We were never fast, but we were always consistent,” Fisher said. “What yards we gained, we kept. Like my father (the late J.E. Fisher Sr.) had said earlier that you do not want to have to plow the same ground twice.”
Williams said the transition in the months and years ahead will allow him to begin to slow down and participate in activities he enjoys, such as fly-fishing in the North Carolina mountains, watching Appalachian State Mountaineer football and spending time with his family.
Paul Fisher had known Williams’ family all of his life when he offered him a job in 1969.
“He came up on the radar screen one day when he came in to finance an automobile,” Fisher said. “It was about that time that I had decided to begin growing the bank following the unexpected death of my father five years earlier.”
Fisher said he needed young people to execute the growth plan he had in mind and asked Williams whether he would be interested. At the time, Williams was teaching and coaching at a middle school in Greensboro.
Williams agreed to take his three months of summer vacation from school and give banking a try.
“Towards the end of the summer, I asked him what he thought of banking,” Fisher said. “He said that he had enjoyed the experience and had already let the school office know in Greensboro that he would not be returning.”
Fisher said that was the beginning of their important business relationship and friendship.
“You might say that the rest is history, and that 40 years passes quickly,” he added.
Of the transition being set in motion, Fisher compared it to an airplane’s being in an 18-month landing zone.
He said F&M also has a policy which requires senior executives to give the bank a 12-month notice if they plan to leave or retire.
When Williams and he came up with a transition plan years ago, Fisher said, they agreed the greatest thing they could do for the company, shareholders, employees and community would be to have an experienced and professional team ready when the time came.
“Over the past 10 years, we added those folks to our staff when they became available,” Fisher said. “Now it is time for the bank to begin to execute that very plan.”