Joseph J. Thomas was appointed president and chief executive officer of Freedom Bank of Virginia, effective August 27, 2018. He will succeed Craig Underhill.
“We are very excited to have Joe Thomas join Freedom as our new CEO. He brings an impressive set of industry experiences, leadership qualities and local insights to help drive shareholder value going forward,” said H. Jason Gold, Freedom Bank chairman.
Thomas was most recently president and CEO of Bay Bancorp, a community bank with $700 million in total assets based in Columbia, MD, before its successful sale to Old Line Bancshares in April of 2018 when Thomas was appointed to the board of directors. Thomas was previously managing director of Hovde Private Equity Advisors and Financial Services Partners Fund I, a private equity fund dedicated to investing in financial services companies and community banks.
“I am eager to get back to work at Freedom Bank, the fifth largest locally headquartered bank in the economically vibrant Northern Virginia market,” said Thomas. “The changes in leadership at Freedom represent an opportunity for the talented and diverse leaders in our company to build on Freedom Bank’s core strengths, which include an outstanding staff of professionals, a great list of clients, solid credit quality, an abundant capacity for growth, and a rational branch infrastructure to serve distinct markets in Northern Virginia.”
Thomas had a 20-year career with Wachovia in which he held a range of credit, corporate finance and capital markets positions. Thomas’ last role was managing director of Wachovia Securities and head of Financial Institutions Investment Banking in Charlotte, NC.
Thomas is a chartered financial analyst, a member of the CFA Society of Washington, D.C. and a National Association of Corporate Directors Governance fellow. Thomas also served on the Federal Delegate Board of the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Freedom Bank is a community-oriented bank headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia with total assets of $512 million and total deposits of $434 million at June 30, 2018.
