The Southwest Ledger

Louisiana-based Origin Bank added three bankers to its Dallas team, according to Bankers Digest, which reported the moves on July 31, and an Origin Bancorp release dated July 30. John Klein joined as a relationship manager at the Preston Financial Center. Caroline Merritt joined as a commercial portfolio manager II at the Dallas Financial Center. Mark H. Reily joined as a regional credit officer at the Dallas Financial Center.

Per the reporting, Klein has spent more than 21 years in banking across real estate, middle-market and small-business lending, and holds an economics degree from the University of Texas and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. Merritt, a certified public accountant, has more than five years in middle-market commercial and industrial lending. Reily brings more than 46 years in the industry, working with high-net-worth individuals and families.

For the talent market: a three-person addition that spans origination, portfolio management and credit covers exactly the mid-career and senior profiles that are hardest to recruit in Dallas. Experienced middle-market relationship managers and commercial portfolio managers are in persistently short supply across the Metroplex, and credit officers with multi-decade tenure — the profile Reily fits — are scarcer still. Additions like these are typically filled from incumbents, which opens seats at the institutions the hires leave.

Susser Bank named Austin Wills a senior vice president and relationship manager on its technology-banking team in Austin, according to a Susser Bank announcement dated July 27, also reported by Bankers Digest on July 31.

Before joining, Wills worked across technology banking, commercial real estate banking and advisory roles in high-growth markets, helping companies through expansion, capital raises and scaling. Mark Metcalfe, Susser Bank's executive vice president and Central Texas president, said Wills brings more than a decade of experience and understands "how high-growth technology companies think about capital and scale."

For the talent market: bankers who can underwrite venture-backed and high-growth technology companies — recurring-revenue models, capital raises, scaling operations — are a thin specialty in Central Texas. Openings in that niche draw from a small pool of relationship managers with growth-company experience and are hard to backfill once filled.

Victory Bank, based in Lubbock, promoted Chad Hill to executive vice president and chief lending officer and appointed him an advisory director on its board, according to Bankers Digest, which reported the move on July 30.

Hill joined the bank in 2023 as a senior vice president and was named chief lending officer in 2025. He has 17 years of regional banking experience, including earlier roles at PlainsCapital Bank in Lubbock, where he rose from credit analyst to senior vice president and real estate lending department manager.

For the talent market: when a community bank elevates its lead lender to executive vice president and adds a board seat, the roles beneath — senior lenders and real-estate lending managers — are the ones that tend to open next. West Texas real-estate lending experience, of the kind built at institutions like PlainsCapital, is a portable and locally scarce skill set.