The SW Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) at SMU Cox has added two new trustees to its board roster of advisors. H. Gary Blankenship, chairman and CEO of Greater Southwest Bancshares Inc. and Grapevine-based Bank of the West, and Emily Greenwald, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, were named to the SWGSB board of trustees on January 29.
“We are honored to welcome our new trustees whose experiences and perspectives strengthen SWGSB’s leadership and impact within the community banking industry,” says William T. Chittenden Ph.D., SWGSB president and CEO. “We look forward to their counsel as we build on our legacy and continue to elevate the educational experience we provide as the nation’s premier graduate school of banking. We also thank Jill Castilla, president and CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond and chairman of Citizens Bancshares Inc.; Brad E. Cheves, president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber; and Jelena McWilliams, president of corporate and external affairs for Plaid, for their service to SWGSB as they rotate off our board of trustees.”
Blankenship has been chairman and CEO of Greater Southwest Bancshares Inc. and Bank of the West since chartering the bank in 1986. He continues to be active at the bank, particularly in strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions activities. Blankenship previously served as president and CEO of two other banks and for several years in the corporate structure of large Texas banking organizations as an officer and director. Prior to his public banking career, he was an officer and manager of two finance companies in West Texas. He then served for eight years with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a national bank examiner based in Denver, Colorado, where he performed bank examinations in the U.S. and abroad. He has served on the Texas Department of Banking Commissioner’s Council, as a trustee on the Independent Bankers Association of Texas Insurance Bond Trust and as a director of National Bancshares of Texas Inc. He previously served on the board and as vice chairman of Adfitech, a mortgage technology and consulting company. Blankenship served as past chairman of the board and currently serves as a director of TIB, a $2.9 billion asset bank that serves as a national community correspondent bankers’ bank.
Blankenship graduated from West Texas State University, now known as West Texas A&M University, with a BBA degree in finance and accounting and received his MBA degree from the University of Dallas. He is a recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Award from the Independent Bankers Association of Texas. In 2013, he and his wife, Cynthia Blankenship, who is also a banker and co-founder of the bank, were named recipients of the prestigious D.E. Box Citizens of the Year Award in Grapevine. He was named in the top “500 Most Powerful Business Leaders in Dallas/Fort Worth” in 2016 and 2017.
As senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Greenwald has responsibility for banking supervision and regulation, and credit, risk and reserves management. Before joining the Dallas Fed in 2023, she spent 17 years at the Chicago Fed, where she served as senior vice president for national programs, policy and risk in the supervision and regulation department. Greenwald began her career at the Chicago Fed, examining community banks, and progressed into leadership roles that included capital markets oversight and supervising regional and large banks. In 2009, Greenwald was awarded the William Taylor Award for Excellence in Banking Supervision. She is a commissioned bank examiner and holds both an MBA degree and a BA degree from Southeast Missouri State University.
