Bank CEO to speak at forum

Ed Townsend, chairman and CEO of Local Oklahoma Bank, will talk to Oklahoma Baptist University students about the evolution of his leading banking franchise Sept. 30 at 10 a.m. in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium in Bailey Business Center. 

OBU's Paul Dickinson School of Business is sponsoring the lecture.

Townsend has been involved in banking for more than 35 years. He joined Local Oklahoma Bank as chairman, president and CEO in 1988. He left the bank in 1992 and purchased the Green Country Bank in northeast Oklahoma. In 1997, he formed the Townsend Investment Group and purchased Local Oklahoma Bank and merged his bank with Local.

He previously served as vice chairman of First National Bank in Dallas, where he held several positions, including chief financial officer and head of corporate lending, over a 20-year period.

Townsend graduated form the University of Texas at Austin with bachelor's degrees in economics and accounting and a master's degree in finance.

He is a board member of several organizations, including Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka, the Last Frontier Council, Boy Scouts of America, Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, and the Oklahoma Clearing House Association.

Townsend was elected to the OBU board of trustees in 2000.