First National Bank of Springdale Proud of Bies

One of the four seats expected to be filled by the Bush Administration on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board has business ties to a Northwest Arkansas bank.

The White House had expressed interest in filling one board position with a woman and a banker. In Susan Schmidt Bies, it will take care of each.

Bies, 54, is executive vice president for risk management and auditor of First Tennessee National Corp. in Memphis. She visited First National Bank of Springdale on a few occasions during First Tennessee’s acquisition of FNB, which became official Oct. 1, 1995.

If confirmed by the United States Senate — Bies will officially be nominated at the Fed meeting in late June — she will become the only woman and only banker on the board.

Arthur Thurman, senior vice president and manager of FNB Springdale’s commercial lending department, said Bies “assisted with the acquisition” and has always been “available if we needed things within the realm of her responsibility.”

“She’s a very, very sharp lady,” Thurman said. “It’s a tribute to our organization. There are only seven of these positions. It’s kind of like one of our members of the family has done extremely well.”

Bies will be nominated to a term that expires Jan. 31, 2012. Before her current position, she was the bank’s treasurer and then its chief financial officer.