The Texas Bankers Association (TBA) recently announced the elected board of directors for its 2025–26 fiscal year. The officers’ terms run from June 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026. Ron Butler, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Abilene-based First Financial Bank NA, has been named TBA chairman. The new vice chair is William Lucas, president and CEO at Shelby Savings Bank SSB in Center. Michael Neill, CEO at Athens-based First State Bank, is TBA’s new treasurer. Jan Mills, chair and president of First National Bank of Winnsboro, will serve as immediate past chair.

As executive vice president and chief administrative officer of First Financial Bank, Butler helps lead a $13 billion company with 78 branches located across Texas. He is also vice chair of First Financial Bankshares Inc. He previously served as CEO of First Financial Bank in Eastland and Stephenville. He has been with First Financial Bank for more than three decades.

Butler graduated from Texas Tech University with a BBA degree and an MBA degree from Tarleton State University. He is also a graduate of the SW Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University. He has served on the boards of numerous community organizations and is the former board chair of the Abilene Industrial Foundation and Abilene Chamber of Commerce. Butler has also sat on the advisory council of the Excellence in Banking program at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, as well as the advisory council of the Rawls College of Business (emeritus). He is the former director of the West Central Texas Municipal Water District, board chair of ContinueCare Hospital at Hendrick Medical Center and the Abilene Improvement Corp. Butler was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve on the Brazos River Authority board of directors and has served numerous terms as a director of the Texas Bankers Association.

In 2023, Butler was inducted into the Texas Bankers Hall of Fame on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.

Other members of the TBA board of directors include:

Founded in 1885, the Texas Bankers Association is the largest state-based banking association in the U.S. TBA advocates for approximately 400 member banks in Austin and Washington; trains more than 20,000 bankers annually; provides nationally recognized community bank services; and invests in Texas communities through financial literacy, scholarship and charitable activities.