Encore Bancshares Inc., the parent company of Encore Bank of Little Rock, has announced the appointment of four new board members.
“We are thrilled to welcome these four new directors,” Chris Roberts, chairman and CEO of Encore, said in a statement. “Their unique experiences and backgrounds will be instrumental to us as we continue to grow and build a different kind of bank for our clients, partners and employees. We are fortunate to have these strong leaders join our team.”
Mark Richardson is the CEO and president of his family-owned RAM Investments LLC and MAR Real Estate LLC, both of which invest, finance, source and syndicate capital into a variety of real estate developments and investments across the country. He is active in industrial, retail, office, hospitality and residential developments.
Richardson has a bachelor's in business from Clemson University and a master's in business administration from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Clemson University Board of Trustees and Teach for America South Carolina Advisory Board.
Richardson and his family founded and owned the NFL's Carolina Panthers and Bank of America Stadium from their inception in 1993 until 2018. He served as president of the Carolina Panthers until 2009 and was a member of the NFL Competition and NFL Broadcast Committees.
Rita Lowman, the former president of Pilot Bank, is a 45-year banking veteran whose career highlights include managing 23 acquisitions, including the NationsBank-Barnett merger in 1997.
Elected chair of the Florida Bankers Association in 2017, Lowman was the third woman to serve in this capacity in its 130-year history. She also served on the American Bankers Board of Directors and Vice Chair of its Government Relations Council and Community Council Board. Lowman served as the Chair of the 2020-2022 ReliaQuest Bowl.
Chad McNair is CEO of McNair Java Partners, a San Antonio-based firm that invests in and provides management expertise to various startup ventures in aerospace, coffee, real estate and other industries.
McNair began his career as part of a large consulting engineering group after earning a degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and an master's in business administration in finance from the University of Houston.
In 1988, he made a significant career change and founded Aspen Beverage Group, a cold brew coffee extract business. After relocating the Aspen Beverage Group from Houston to San Antonio in 1993, McNair’s coffee business grew to become the largest cold brew coffee manufacturer globally. McNair sold the company in 2017 to form his family office, McNair Java Partners.
Garrett Frost is the president and CEO of Frost Flying Inc., an Air Tractor dealer primarily focusing on the sale of new and used aircraft, parts and aircraft maintenance. His business has operations in the U.S., Central America and South America.
Frost brings experience in both aviation and agriculture. He grew up working at his family's flying service in Marianna, Arkansas. Frost founded Unlimited Aviation Insurance in 2012 while he was still a student at the University of Arkansas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance.
Additionally, Frost is an active real estate investor, specializing in farmland and commercial properties.
