Lubbock-based Victory Bank and its parent company, Victory Financial Corp., recently announced the appointment of Deanna Hargrove as executive vice president and chief financial officer of both entities.

Hargrove began her career at Grant Thornton in Dallas, performing audits of both private and public companies. She moved into banking in 2016 when she joined Veritex Bank as financial reporting and analysis manager overseeing SEC reporting. She also served as acting controller of Veritex Holdings.

Hargrove then moved to Vista Bank for which she served as controller and most recently as senior vice president of finance and accounting. While at Vista Bank, she helped scale the accounting department to align with the bank’s growth and assisted with M&A activity and a system conversion. Hargrove holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting from the University of North Texas.

“Deanna’s background speaks for itself. She has the right skill set, experience and high-performance mindset to help Victory Bank scale to its full potential over the long term,” says C. Brett McDowell, CEO and vice chairman. “The best part is Deanna just being the high character person she naturally is; she fits perfectly with Wyatt Leavell (COO) and me to lead this company with Victory Bank’s culture out front.”

Victory Financial Corp. was formed in 2022. Victory Bank serves Lubbock and the Texas Big Country with offices in Lubbock, Buffalo Gap and Winters.