Blue Ridge Bank CEO Billy Beale retired from the company, effective March 6, the Virginia-based lender announced Thursday.
Chief Credit Officer Harry Golliday will become interim CEO and president of the bank’s holding company, and interim CEO of the bank, according to a release.
Beale came out of retirement in 2023 to lead the bank at the request of its directors, who “wanted a new leadership team that could resolve their regulatory issues and return the bank to its community bank roots,” he posted on LinkedIn. He said it’s his third and final time retiring.
Months after Beale joined the bank, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency increased Blue Ridge’s capital requirements and hit it with a cease-and-desist order related to “systemic internal controls breakdowns” within its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering program.
The bank raised $165 million and exited the order in 22 months – record time, according to Beale. The bank also left the banking-as-a-service business, managing the deposit runoff by raising local deposits and downsizing its lending portfolio, Beale said on LinkedIn.
“Many were surprised by our success,” he said, crediting colleagues who “[b]etween June 2023 and March 2024 … left jobs at stable banks to join Blu[e] Ridge who was in danger of failure because they trusted me and people I was hiring.”
“Without these people none of what was achieved would have been possible,” Beale wrote.
Under Beale, the bank returned to profitability, according to Chairman Vance Spilman.
Before Beale took the helm at the bank in May 2023, his five-decade-long banking career included time as CEO of Richmond, Virginia-based Community Bankers’ Bank and, previously, Union Bank & Trust, a predecessor to Atlantic Union, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Throughout those decades, Beale had never worked at a bank that faced “so much as [a memo of understanding] or written agreement, let alone consent order,” Beale said in November, adding that it was “nice to have it over with.”
Golliday, for his part, joined Blue Ridge in January 2024 after four decades in banking, including in leadership roles at Capital One Bank and SunTrust.
Golliday will focus on growth, capital management and strategic opportunities available to Blue Ridge, the bank said.
