Board Member Profile — James W. Allison

Jim – named one of the best lawyers in America in 2006 - is the Managing Partner of the Johnston, Allison & Hord. The Charlotte native’s practice areas include health care fraud, business law, and commercial real estate.

A 1966 graduate of Davidson College, Jim received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 1969. That same year, he was admitted to the North Carolina Bar. He has been published in a number of law journals primarily on the subject of managed care.

Jim was a captain in the US Army and served the nation in the Vietnam War, during which he was awarded the Bronze Star. An Eagle Scout, he has continued his involvement, serving on the Friends of Scouting Campaign.

Besides serving on the board of the Bank of Commerce, Jim serves on the Governance Committee and Executive Committee. Jim also sits on the boards of the Metrolina Health Initiative and the Presbyterian Hospital Institutional Review Board.

Board Member Profile—Anne Eddins

Anne has been a tax accountant in the Charlotte area for more than 40 years. Her practice, Eddins & Riescher, serves the accounting needs of individuals and independently-owned companies.

Anne graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where she received her BS degree in business administration and accounting in 1959. Anne has been married since 1961 to her husband, Harold. They have two children, Amy and Hal, and three grandchildren.

She worked as an accountant for a leasing company in Charlotte after graduation. In 1961, she joined Haskins & Sells (which later became Deloitte & Touche). Anne worked as a tax accountant there for 18 years. Upon leaving Haskins & Sells, she started her own firm in 1980. Her daughter, Amy Riescher, joined her practice in 1992. She is active in her church, Providence Baptist, where she teaches Sunday school and serves on the Endowment Committee. Anne is on several boards, including the local Peterbilt Trucking dealership.

Anne Chairs our Bank’s Community Reinvestment Committee and also serves on the Audit Committee.

Board Member Profile - Dick Handshaw

Dick has been ahead of the e-learning curve since 1980 and remains so today as the president of Handshaw Incorporated. His firm develops web-based training programs and systems for banks and other multi-location companies.

At First Union in the early 1980s, he developed one of the first computer and video elearning applications. Dick left First Union and helped found Educational Technologies, Inc., where he led instructional design engagements. He has also brought his training expertise to the academic arena, holding adjunct teaching positions at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

In 1985, he founded Handshaw Incorporated. He has held a number of industry leadership positions, ranging from president of the Carolinas Chapter of International Society for Performance Improvement to co-vice president of programs for the Charlotte Chapter of American Society of Training and Development. Additionally, Dick has served on the town council of Harrisburg, NC, and is on the Board of Trustees for his college fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi.

Board Member Profile - Laura C. Kendall

Laura C. Kendall is the President of Tanner Companies, LLC which is a seventy-five year old, family owned company, based in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Tanner designs and manufactures women’s high fashion luxury apparel under the Doncaster brand label which is sold through a private network of consultants across the United States.

Laura is also a member of the Board of Directors, and Loan Committee Chair for Charles & Colvard, Ltd., a publicly traded corporation based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Charles & Colvard manufacturers, markets and distributes Charles & Colvard created Moissanite jewels for sale in the worldwide jewelry market. Moissanite, also known by its chemical name, silicon carbide (SiC), is distinct from all other jewels based on its fire, brilliance, luster, durability and rarity.

Previously Laura was Chief Executive Officer of CFOdynamics LLC, providing financial advisory services to middle market businesses. Prior to 2002, Laura was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Delhaize America, Inc., a publicly held supermarket operator with approximately 1,400 stores in the eastern United States with sales of over $14 billion under the Food Lion, Hannaford, and Kash n’ Karry retail formats. Prior to 1997, Ms. Kendall spent 10 years with several publicly held retail corporations in senior financial positions and eleven years in public accounting. Laura is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Bank. She serves on the Loan Committee of the Board of Directors.

Ms. Kendall earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Western Michigan University and is a CPA licensed in Michigan.

Board Member Profile — Earl D. Leake

Earl, originally from Mt. Gilead, North Carolina, is retired from Lance, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of snack food items, where he was Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Organizational Development. Earl is chairman of the Bank of Commerce board of directors.

He attended Methodist University of Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management in 1973. Earl’s career with Lance has spanned more than thirty years. In 1987, the company elected him as an officer of the corporation and he has held a number of middle and top management positions.

He and his wife Florence have a teenage daughter, Kristen, who attends Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia. The family worships at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.

Earl has been involved in a number of volunteer efforts, ranging from serving on the boards of Harvey B. Gantt Center and Crisis Assistance Ministry to the boards of Methodist University and Neighborhood Housing Services.

Past corporate affiliations include First Commerce Bank as vice- chairman and the local advisory boards of Branch Banking & Trust, and Bank of Granite.

In addition to serving as Board Chairman, Earl serves on the bank’s Executive Committee and Governance Committee.

Board Member Profile — William G. Loeffler

Bill Loeffler is the retired CEO of Loeffler Ketchum Mountjoy, a Charlotte-based marketing communications firm he founded in 1981. LKM has won every major national creative award and has been named by Graphis Magazine as one of the “Top Ten Agencies in the World at Getting the Advertiser’s Message Out.”

During his tenure at LKM Bill had responsibility for a wide range of consumer, service and business-to-business accounts, including numerous financial institutions, Duke Power, Bojangles, International Paper, Sonoco Products Company, and others. Bill joined General Electric Company in Schenectady, NY in 1965 as a public relations specialist working mainly in the area of consumer electronics. In 1967 he moved to Winston-Salem, NC with GE, working first as an advertising copywriter and later as an account supervisor.

From there, he was recruited to Charlotte by the Southeast’s largest advertising agency, becoming its youngest vice president.

His love for the Charlotte area and desire to stay led him to found LKM in 1981. Bill was heavily involved in numerous civic and charitable activities, including serving on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce and the Arts and Science Council, President of the Charlotte Basketball Committee, Vice President of the Better Business Bureau, and in many other leadership posts.

He’s been awarded the Advertising Club of Charlotte’s Silver Medal Award for contributions to his company, industry and community and has been recognized as the Charlotte Chamber’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.”

A former Marine Corps officer, Bill is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, and is now a partner in his wife’s firm, Sinclair Loeffler Communications.

Bill brings a great deal of banking expertise experience to the Board. Prior to joining our Board he served for eight years as a Board member, Chairman of the Marketing Committee, and member of the Loan Committee for eight years at another Charlotte community bank; he attended and graduated from the Commissioner of Banks Directors’ College last fall, and today he serves as a member of our Bank’s Loan Committee and is Chairman of the Marketing Committee.

Board Member Profile — Karen A. McIsaac

Karen McIsaac is the founder and president of Project Managers, Inc. She has over 25 years experience in the project management field and has personally led numerous projects with significant and sustainable positive financial impact, and is accountable for helping clients improve their project management practices.

Karen’s past projects include the rescue of a high-risk turnaround for a top five ranked financial institution. She also managed one of the largest U.S. divestitures and banking center consolidations for a major bank holding company.

In addition to being a certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute, Karen is heavily involved in the Project Management Institute’s Charlotte area chapter, PMI Metrolina. She sits on the advisory board and has been tapped as a speaker for the monthly chapter meetings. Karen also sits on the Board of Directors of KinderMourn, Inc. and serves on the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce’s Small and Medium Business Council.

A recipient of the Charlotte Chamber’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Women in Business Achievement Award, Karen was also finalist for two national Stevie Awards, which recognize women business owners. She was featured on the television series “American Entrepreneur” where she discussed her accomplishments, hardships and lessons learned from her perspective as a business owner. Karen’s accomplishments also include several published articles on project management best practices in publications such as The Charlotte Observer and the Charlotte Business Journal. She was featured in the February 2006 edition of the Project Management Institute’s monthly publication, PM Network.

Karen is a founding member and current Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank. She also serves on the Technology and Executive committees. Her extensive knowledge of the financial services industry and as a small business owner makes Karen an excellent asset to the Bank.

Board Member Profile – John Scott

John Scott is a 1966 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Following graduation, he volunteered for active duty in the U.S. Navy. Scott served as a decorated commissioned officer aboard the U.S.S. Liberty, where he was awarded the Silver Star for heroism, and later aboard the U.S.S. Monmouth County as part of the Mobile Riverine Forces Task Force 117 in Vietnam during 1968.

After completing his military service, he began his business career with Southern Bell Telephone Company in Charlotte, where he held various management positions with increasing responsibility in engineering, telephone-switching operations and corporate planning. At the time of his retirement, he oversaw BellSouth’s real estate and building construction operations in the Carolinas and Georgia.

John Scott also is the founder of Smith, Scott & Associates, Inc., a highly respected custom-home building and commercial real estate company that specialized in infill development of new single family homes, condominiums and office buildings in Charlotte’s historic neighborhoods, including Myers Park, Eastover, Foxcroft and Dilworth. He served as president and CFO of the company with responsibilities including project development, construction management, overseeing the organization’s finances and the hiring of staff and crews. In January 2006, he retired from Smith, Scott & Associates, Inc. to focus on investment real estate brokerage activities and spend more time with his family.

He is a founding member of Bank of Commerce’s Board of Directors, where he serves on the Bank’s Audit and the Community Reinvestment Committees. He successfully completed the North Carolina Bank Director’s College (Class XV) in 2006. John and wife, Sue, have both served on numerous community boards. The couple has two adult sons, John, Jr. and James.

Board Member Profile — H. Dean Sellers

Dean is a retired partner of the international accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, where he served clients, public and private, for over 30 years with accounting, auditing, merger & acquisition and SEC services. After receiving a history degree from Florida State University, he was a pilot in the United States Air Force and is a Viet Nam veteran. Subsequent to his Air Force duty, he returned to the University of South Florida, obtained an accounting degree and then joined Deloitte.

A certified public accountant, he spent three years in the National SEC Group of Deloitte assisting clients and client service teams in filings with the U.S. securities & Exchange Commission. During 1995 and 1996 he spent a year in Russia leading an international Deloitte team in performing the first ever audit of the largest Russian truck manufacturer.

He recently joined the National Accounting & Auditing group of Reznick Group, a national CPA firm, where he advises Reznick professionals on SEC, accounting and auditing matters. Dean also teaches those subjects to Reznick professionals. As a Board member of the Bank, he serves as Chairman of the Audit Committee. He is also a member of the board of directors of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity National Education Foundation and Habitat for Humanity, Matthews, NC. He is past chairman of the boards of Habitat for Humanity, Matthews, NC and Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont.

Board Member Profile – Philip J. Solomon M.D.

Philip moved to Charlotte in 1992 to join a solo-practitioner in an Obstetrics and Gynecology practice. The practice flourished and has since hired it’s sixth MD and recently completed a 13,000 square foot office in the Blakeney area of South Charlotte.

He attended Emory College in Atlanta for his undergraduate degree. Philip completed his training in Philadelphia at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and graduated from the University of South Florida Medical School in Tampa, Fla.

Philip currently serves on the board of the Jewish Community Center as well as being a past member of the Ballantyne YMCA (now the Morrison YMCA) board of directors. He has served on a variety of committees affiliated with Carolinas Medical Center- Pineville as well as serving as the Chairman of the Maternal-Child Department of that same hospital from 2000-2002. He currently serves as Chairman of the Asset Liability committee for Bank of Commerce.

Board Member Profile - Wes Sturges

Wes has lived in Charlotte, NC almost all of his life. He graduated from Myers Park High School and then attended the University of Virginia, where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics.

After a short tour of duty in the US Army Reserve Band, Wes joined First Union National Bank as a loan adjuster (repo man). Then after a year of this duty he went through First Union’s management training program and was Assistant Manager at several offices.

Wes spent the bulk of his early banking career with United Carolina Bank where he ultimately, after serving as a commercial lender and branch manager, became the city executive for the Charlotte region, supervising 21 offices, the commercial loan platform and operations.

The Bank had a downsizing n 1995 and Wes took the opportunity to, along with several of our directors of Bank of Commerce, start First Commerce Bank. The Bank grew and prospered for seven years, then merged with Bank of Granite.

Wes is the founding president of Bank of Commerce.

Wes has served in a variety of civic leadership roles in the community, including Mecklenburg Chairman of the County United Way Campaign, Chairman of the Spirit Square Board, Chairman of WTVI.

Wes has also served the banking industry as Chairman of the North Carolina Bankers’ Association, State representative of the ABA government affairs committee, and Chapter Chairman of the American Institute of Bankers.

Wes is married, has two grown children and three grand children.

Board Member Profile — Betty B. Trautwein

Betty is a consultant who provides services focused on strategic planning and organizational improvement to support business leaders in achieving key initiatives. She previously served as managing director of the Carolinas Practice of Resources Global Professionals, an international professional services firm providing accounting and finance, risk management, internal audit, human capital, and information management consulting services to clients in every major industry and global region.

In a banking career that spanned more than two decades, Betty worked in the North American headquarters of two international financial services companies. Her background includes serving as a division president and as consumer group chief financial officer for First Union Corporation. Earlier, she worked in a number of line and staff positions with London-based Barclays Bank PLC, including serving as senior vice president and general auditor of BarclaysAmericanCorporation.

A CPA, Betty began her career with Peat Marwick Mitchell, now KPMG. Betty earned a BA in human relations from St. Andrews Presbyterian College, where she was a Vardell Scholar. After working in sales with Campbell Soup Company and IBM, she did post-graduate work in accounting and finance at both the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University.

Active in the Charlotte community, Betty has served on the boards and committees of a number of professional and non-profit organizations. Her leadership roles have included serving as president of Leadership Charlotte, Women Executives, and the local chapter of the North Carolina Association of CPAs. In addition, she has been recognized as Charlotte BusinessWoman of the Year.

Betty previously served on the boards of American Information Company in San Francisco and Charlotte-based First Commerce Bank, where she served on the Audit Committee. She was elected to the board of Bank of Commerce in June 2008 and currently serves on the Governance Committee.

Board Member Profile — Richard T. (Stick) Williams

Stick is vice president of enterprise field services at Duke Energy Corporation, the Charlotte-based integrated energy and energy services firm. He also serves as president of the Duke Energy Foundation. He has worked at Duke Energy since 1979.

Prior to joining Duke Energy, Stick was a senior auditor and certified public accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co. He received his BS in accounting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1975.

He has been a member of the UNC, Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, served on the board of the UNC General Alumni Association, the Durham Chamber of Commerce, and the Triangle Community Foundation.

Since moving to Charlotte, Stick has been on the board of the NC Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, the Greater Charlotte YMCA, Hope Haven, Inc., Communities in School of NC, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Foundation.