The Tarrant County Bankers Association (TCBA) has named Wade Donnell, president and chief executive officer of Fort Worth-based NBT Financial Bank, its 2026 Banker of the Year.
The peer-nominated award, presented by TCBA for more than two decades, recognizes a banker who has excelled in Tarrant County banking, enhanced the industry’s public image or encouraged fellow local bankers. Donnell was nominated by Mark Riebe, chairman of TexasBank and recipient of the 2023 Banker of the Year award, and was selected by a majority vote of TCBA’s board of directors.
“When Wade started bringing Fort Worth’s community bank presidents together every month, he gave them a place to learn from one another,” says Lacy Samples, senior vice president and compliance officer at NBT Financial Bank and acting president of TCBA. “That kind of leadership is exactly what this award recognizes, and his peers have noticed.”
Donnell began his banking career in 1988 and joined NBT Financial Bank in 2000. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University and its Graduate School of Banking. He was commissioned as a national bank examiner in 1993. Donnell established a monthly luncheon for Fort Worth community bank presidents, which now meets at the Fort Worth Club, and recently completed his term on the Texas Bankers Association board.
“I’m humbled and appreciative, especially because this comes from fellow bankers across Tarrant County,” Donnell says.
“A lot of our board members are entrepreneurs who know the importance of having a banker pick up the phone, and Wade is and has always been that kind of banker,” says Steve Eargle, chairman of NBT Financial Bank’s board. “He believes the people making decisions for local businesses should know those businesses and live in the same community, and he’s spent more than 25 years at NBT making sure Fort Worth keeps that kind of banking.”
Earlier this year, NBT Financial Bank opened a branch on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth, and it plans to open a Grapevine branch in December.
The TCBA Banker of the Year luncheon will be held November 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth. TCBA will make a charitable donation to Donnell’s designated recipient, Community Caring Center.
Register for the Banker of the Year luncheon.
Established in 1973, NBT Financial Bank has banking offices in Fort Worth, Hurst, Azle, Burleson and Willow Park, with a Grapevine branch scheduled to open in December.
