ATLANTA, Oct. 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta) today announced the results of the 2023 director election. The Bank conducted an election to fill the member directorship for South Carolina, and two independent directorships representing members across the FHLBank Atlanta footprint. All of the directors-elect will serve a four-year term commencing on January 1, 2024, and ending December 31, 2027.

Thornwell Dunlap was re-elected to serve as the member director representing the state of South Carolina, John Rucker was re-elected to serve as an independent director, and Kim Casiano was elected to serve as an independent director.

“We are excited to welcome Kim Casiano to the board as an independent director. Ms. Casiano’s wealth of experience and leadership will be a great benefit to the board and the Bank,” said FHLBank Atlanta chair of the board of directors, Thornwell Dunlap. “We are also pleased to have director Rucker return to the board, and I am grateful to continue representing my home state of South Carolina as director,” added Dunlap.

Mr. Dunlap has been a director at FHLBank Atlanta since 2016 and is currently chair of the board and the executive committee, and an ex officio member of all other board committees. He previously served as chair of FHLBank Atlanta’s Governance and Compensation Committee from 2017-2021. He has served as president and chief executive officer of Countybank since 1995 and chair of its holding company, TCB Corporation, since 2001.

He has served as chair for the following organizations: South Carolina Bankers Association, South Carolina Bankers School, Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, Greenwood Partnership Alliance, Partnership for a Greater Greenwood County, Greenwood Economic Alliance, Greenwood Rotary Club, Self Regional Healthcare, Self Regional Healthcare Foundation, and YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. He has served as president for the following organizations: Independent Banks of South Carolina, Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, Greenwood Rotary Club, and Lakelands Region YMCA. He also has served as a director for Piedmont Technical College Foundation and was a founding director for Ten at the Top. His past achievements include being named Greenwood County Small Business Person of the Year, South Carolina Ambassador for Economic Development, and South Carolina Outstanding Young Banker of the Year.

Ms. Casiano is currently a director of the Ford Motor Company, where she was elected to the board of directors in 2003, and a director of Mutual of America, where she was elected to the board of directors in 2006. She is a former director of Mead Johnson Nutrition Company and Scotiabank of Puerto Rico.

Ms. Casiano has experience in financial, organizational, and risk management, having served on the audit committees of Ford Motor Company, Mutual of America, Mead Johnson Nutrition Company, and Scotiabank of Puerto Rico. Ms. Casiano’s responsibilities on the audit committee at Ford Motor Company include oversight of Ford Credit, a financial entity with over $140 billion in assets. From 2010 to the present, Ms. Casiano has been a pro bono consultant to non-profits, small companies, and C-Suite executives of major corporations on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics, including diversity, equality, and inclusion, board governance, and business strategies, further contributing to her knowledge of organizational management. In the area of project management, Ms. Casiano helped lead Ford Motor Company through the restructuring of its business units and substantial technology changes, resulting in a customer-centric focus. Ms. Casiano has been a speaker at the White House, Detroit Inforum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Orlando Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Harvard Business School. She has been a contributor to KPMG Board Leadership Center publications, including a recent article on ESG, climate change, and corporate governance, and she is a contributor to an upcoming article by the Harvard Business School on climate change and ESG. Ms. Casiano’s role as an Executive Fellow in the Harvard Business School involves teaching in both the MBA and Executive Education programs on topics such as Women in Boards, Board Preparedness, Board Dilemmas, and Board Governance. Ms. Casiano has over 20 years of experience in media, marketing, targeted marketing, and communications, leading and managing two large companies during remarkable shifts in the ways media was delivered and consumed. Ms. Casiano received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University.

Mr. Rucker is the national managing director for affordable housing of Stifel Nicolaus & Company, a full-service brokerage and investment banking firm, in its Montgomery, AL office. He has served as a director of FHLBank Atlanta since 2017 and currently serves as chair of the Bank’s Governance and Compensation Committee. He previously served as chair of the Bank’s Housing and Community Investment Committee from 2019-2022 and was a member of the Bank’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council from 2012-2016, serving as its chair for 2016.

Mr. Rucker has experience in derivatives and the law, having practiced as an investment banker and attorney since 1977, with a focus in financing alternatives in the affordable housing sector. In the area of project management, he led Stifel in becoming the leading underwriter of affordable housing bond issues for the last eleven years. Mr. Rucker has been involved in rural development affordable housing, pooling multiple projects in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Mr. Rucker has experience in organizational management and risk management as a founding partner of Merchant Capital, LLC and subsequently as managing director of Stifel Nicolaus & Company, following the merger. His board service includes Fannie Mae’s Southeast Regional Housing Advisory Council, Fannie Mae’s National Housing Impact Advisory Council, and the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association. He is also on the board of CAHEC, a leading non-profit tax-credit syndicator. He has spoken regularly at affordable housing conferences on the use of financial derivatives and project finance. He holds an undergraduate and law degree from The University of Mississippi.

About FHLBank Atlanta
FHLBank 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 $7.6 billion in Affordable Housing Program funds, assisting more than one million households.

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

CONTACT: David McCaw
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
DMcCaw@fhlbatl.com
404.888.5652