First Bancorp announced the expansion of its executive leadership team in order to enhance the execution of its long-term strategic plan. Effective May 13, 2024, Christian Wilson was named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Bank, reporting to Adam Currie, President of First Bank. Wilson has most recently spent 10 years with Fiserv in New York City overseeing Credit, Fraud and Risk, both on a national and global scale.

Prior to his time at Fiserv, he served as a team leader of the Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force. Christian has expert knowledge in operations and strategy across cyber, controls, regulatory review, credit management and fraud functions within financial services. He is a Guilford County, N.C. native and was a Park Scholar at N.C. State University and will office in Greensboro.

Donna Ward has assumed the new position of Chief Transformation Officer of First Bank as of May 13, 2024. Donna will be focused specifically on change leadership and project management preparing the Bank and associates for enterprise-wide organizational changes that will accompany continued growth. Having been with First Bank over 27 years, Donna has witnessed significant change and has already earned a strong reputation as a change leader and advocate through acquisitions and systems integrations and conversions.

In addition, on May 13, 2024, Brent Hicks joined the Bank as Executive Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer(?CAO?), reporting to Elizabeth Bostian, Chief Financial Officer. Brent?s expertise as an audit and risk expert in Finance at BB&T/Truist, as well as in the Chief Accounting Officer role at a $26 billion bank will align directly with the expertise needed as the Bank expands. Effective with Brent?s joining the Bank, Blaise Buczkowski will shift from CAO responsibilities to the role of Executive Vice President of Corporate Finance, leading the financial analysis, forecasting, integration and planning functions for the Bank.

While Blaise has been performing many of these functions since joining the Bank in 2017, she will now be focused on building a comprehensive financial view of the company that will leverage financial data for strategic planning and informed decision-making. Brent also will office in Greensboro.