Texas State Bank CEO honored

McALLEN - Texas State Bank CEO Glen Roney is now in rarefied air with the likes of Michael Dell, Ross Perot and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Roney is one of four captains of industry set to be inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame come November.

Past inductees include most of the state's influential and successful business people from the last century, including oil magnates, bank moguls and sports team owners.

"It's a very selective and distinctive group," said Roney, who lives in McAllen. "I'm honored to be even mentioned alongside those people."

The Texas Business Hall of Fame is a philanthropic organization that honors leaders in Texas commerce. The group also funds several scholarships each year, said Angela Davis, a spokeswoman for the program.

It informed Roney of the honor in April and made it public earlier this week.

This year, other inductees are Frost Bank chairman and CEO Dick Evans, Myers Financial Corp. chairman and president Mike A. Myers and Kern Wildenthal, president of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Roney, 72, is a career Valley banker who founded McAllen State Bank and has led Texas State Bank for more than 20 years.

He was one of the founders of Texas State Bank in 1981 and was named CEO of the bank in 1986. The bank went public in 2003, making it the only publicly traded company headquartered in the Upper Rio Grande Valley.

In 2006, Spanish-firm BBVA purchased Texas State Bank for $2.16 billion.

Texas State Bank is still the most popular bank in the region by a wide margin, according to market-share information from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Lately, Roney has been occupied with merging Texas State Bank with other BBVA entities, such as Compass Bank in Alabama, he said. BBVA kept Roney on as head of the company to preserve BBVA as a community bank with local ties and leadership.

While Roney was born outside Dallas, he has called McAllen home for a majority of his life, he said. He has served on local philanthropic boards and donated to the Boys & Girls Club and Boy Scouts of America.

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Kyle Arnold covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4410.