Norma Lea Beasley Elected Director of Oaks Bank & Trust Chairman Max Wells Welcomes Longtime Shareholder and Business Leader’s Guidance

The Oaks Bank & Trust Company elected Norma Lea Beasley to its nine-member board of directors. She is the retired chairwoman and CEO of SAFECO Land Title Company in Dallas, now known as Title Texas, and is a longtime bank shareholder

Oaks Bank has five offices in Dallas, Duncanville and Richardson, and was founded in 1985. With assets of $100 million, Oaks Bank is a full-service, independent community bank dedicated to providing small and medium-size businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals with customized one-to-one banking services.

“Norma Beasley has been a valued shareholder and loyal customer at Oaks Bank & Trust for many years, and we are so pleased that she has agreed to join our board. The bank and its other customers will benefit from Norma’s many years of business leadership – leadership that pioneered the way for other women to become successful,” said Max Wells, chairman of the bank’s board of directors

Beasley, an Arkansas native, has two law degrees from the University of Arkansas, awarded in 1953 and 1960, and studied oil and gas and taxation at Southern Methodist University’s Graduate School of Law. She enrolled in the University of Arkansas at age 16 and was the only woman in her law class. Arkansas honored her with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1986 and again in 2002 with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Considered a pioneer in the real estate industry, Beasley was successful in business at a time when women had fewer career choices. She was the first woman and youngest attorney hired by Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation of Tulsa and later, at age 35, became the first woman to head the legal department of a title company in Texas as executive vice president and general council running 14 offices for a major Dallas title company.

Beasley and her CPA partner, Imogene Walker, went on to own six title companies from 1968 to 1978 at which time she purchased the Dallas operation of Safeco Title Insurance Company. By 1982 she and her partner owned 11 title companies. These constituted the largest group of independent title agencies in the nation and at one point had 50 offices with 300 employees, more than 80 percent of whom were women. In 2001, Beasley sold three of the companies and sold three more in 2002. She still owns five North Texas title companies.

She has received many business honors, including the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Pathfinder Award and the Greater Dallas Chamber’s Athena Award, given to the outstanding businesswoman of the year. She was selected by NBC's "Today Show" as one of the Outstanding Business Women in America; named "Who's Who in Insurance" by the Dallas Business Journal; and is one of 30 women in America selected by the National Women's Economic Alliance Foundation for contributions to free enterprise system; and received the Lifetime Membership Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award from Commercial Real Estate Women

In 2003, Beasley was the first woman to be inducted into the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors Hall of Fame, which honors individuals who have made a significant impact on those who have shaped and developed the commercial real estate industry in North Texas. In 1999, she was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame by then governor, now President George W. Bush

Throughout her career, Beasley has worked to help women in the business world. She taught real estate classes for Southern Methodist University and helped organize the real estate department for El Centro and Eastfield Community Colleges in Dallas in furtherance of knowledge and expertise of the real estate professionals in Texas.

MORE ABOUT OAKS BANK
In addition to loan and other financial services, The Oaks Bank & Trust Company offers insurance and associated financial services through its affiliate Texas BancPartners Insurance Agency LLC, and commercial and residential mortgage services through its affiliate Parkvest BancGroup. All three companies are part of the Prestonwood BancShares Inc. group. More information is available at www.oaksbank.com.