Board of Directors

Mr. Nelson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of First Bancorp, Inc. and The First Bank & Trust Company. Prior to his current role, Mr. Nelson served the Bank as Chief Financial Officer for 21 years. He is a lifetime banker with over 35 years of banking experience.

Mr. Nelson was appointed to The First Bank & Trust Company Board of Directors in 2006 and was elected to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 2015. Mr. Nelson is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Nelson is a 1984 graduate of Emory & Henry College majoring in Accounting and Economics. He completed the University of Virginia National Banking School in 1993.

Mr. Nelson has several other board affiliations including People, Inc., Washington County Service Authority, Virginia Highlands Airport Authority, Washington County Industrial Development Authority and Virginia Bankers Association affiliated boards. Mr. Nelson resides in Meadowview, VA with his wife.

David A. Leonard currently serves as Chairman of First Bancorp, Inc. and The First Bank & Trust Company Board of Directors. Mr. Leonard has served as Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary of both Boards intermittently since 1987. Mr. Leonard is currently Chairman of the Bank’s Audit Committee and also serves on the Trust Committee and Loan Committee.

Mr. Leonard resides in Russell County, Virginia with his family and is a life-long farmer operating a 550-head cattle operation on 2000 acres. Mr. Leonard is also a commercial real estate/industrial developer and entrepreneur.

Mr. Leonard has several other board affiliations including previous terms on the Advisory Board for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Virginia Cattlemen’s Foundation. Mr. Leonard is a 1961 graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in Animal Science.

Ronald L. Barrett grew up in a farming and mining community in Russell County, VA. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1962 with a degree in Animal Science, leading to his first job as meat grader for the USDA in the livestock division. Mr. Barrett was later offered the opportunity to develop and invest in a new farm supply business, Barrett Farm Supply, in Russell County. Mr. Barrett was involved with Barrett Farm Supply for nearly 40 years and was instrumental in its growth. 

Mr. Barrett later became involved in banking and served on the Board of Directors of Russell County National Bank which later became Bank of Virginia. In 1979, Mr. Barrett became an original shareholder of First Russell County Bank, which was later renamed First Bank & Trust Company. 

Mr. Barrett was elected to the First Bank & Trust Company Board of Directors in 1980 and to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 1991. He has served intermittently as Chairman and Secretary of both Boards. Mr. Barrett currently serves on the Bank’s Audit Committee and Loan Committee and has served on various local Boards and Commissions over the years. Mr. Barrett and his wife reside in Lebanon, VA.

Sophie Chafin-Vance is a Senior Vice President and Chief Branch Operations Officer with First Bank and Trust Company. Sophie brings 16 years of banking experience to First Bank and Trust Company, where she is responsible for optimizing and overseeing branch operational performance for 28 locations. 

Sophie was appointed to First Bank and Trust Company’s Board of Directors in 2015 and elected to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 2021. She is a third-generation board member following in the footsteps of her father, the late Augustus “Benton” Chafin, Jr., and her grandfather, the late AB Chafin who was a founding member of the Company. 

A tireless advocate for Southwest Virginia and other surrounding areas of the Bank, Sophie spends her time outside of banking serving on the SWVA Higher Ed Board of Trustees, the Virginia Aviation Board, the Russell County Hospital Foundation Board, and the Ballad Health Community Benefit and Population Health Board. Sophie resides on her family farm in Lebanon, Virginia, with her husband and two children, where she and her sister run their family’s cow-calf operation. Sophie is a 2009 graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in Agriculture and Applied Economics and is a 2014 graduate of the Virginia Bankers Association School of Bank Management.

Ronald L. Barrett was raised on the family beef farm in Lebanon, Virginia, fostering a life-long interest in Agriculture. He graduated from Ferrum College in 1987 with an Associate’s Degree in Biology and furthered his education by receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science from Virginia Tech in 1989. Upon graduation, Mr. Barrett was the manager of a 900-sow hog farm in Foster Falls, VA. Mr. Barrett then worked at Southern States Cooperative in various roles for almost 20 years. 

Mr. Barrett is currently the Assistant Director of Procurement for Surplus Operations at Virginia Tech and has been in this position since 2011. Mr. Barrett was elected to the First Bank and Trust Company Board of Directors in 2015 and appointed to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 2021. 

Mr. Barrett is a second-generation board member, serving alongside his father, Ronald L. Barrett. Mr. Barrett also serves on the Bank’s Compliance Committee and Loan Committee. Mr. Barrett and his family reside in Christiansburg, Virginia.

William H. Hayter served as President and CEO for the Bank and Holding Company for 40 years. Mr. Hayter is a 1976 graduate of Virginia Tech. After completing his education, Mr. Hayter served as a Senior Credit Analyst for the Farm Credit system. 

He was instrumental in the organization of First Russell County Bank, which was later renamed First Bank & Trust Company. For some time, Mr. Hayter was the youngest banking CEO in the state of Virginia. Mr. Hayter has served various organizations over the years including prior terms as Chairman of the Virginia Agribusiness Council and Chairman of the Virginia Bankers Association. 

Mr. Hayter has also participated in several industrial development organizations along with serving on the Board of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Mr. Hayter is currently the Chairman of the Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia, formerly known as the Johnston Memorial Healthcare Foundation. In addition to banking, Mr. Hayter has been active in the agriculture industry and maintains a commercial cow-calf and stocker operation on his farm in southwest Virginia. Mr. Hayter and his wife reside in Abingdon, VA.

Raleigh E. Hayter is a Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer with First Bank and Trust Company. Prior to assuming this role in 2019, he served as Vice President/Credit Review for three years. Mr. Hayter began his banking career at First Bank and Trust Company in 2011 as a part-time employee, later becoming a full-time employee in 2014. 

Mr. Hayter participated in the Bank’s Management Associate Program gaining a solid foundation in all aspects of banking following his degree from the Virginia Tech Pamplin School of Business. He is also a graduate of the Southeastern School of Advanced Commercial Lending and a graduate of the VBA School of Bank Management at University of Virginia. 

Mr. Hayter currently serves on the VBA Lending Executives Committee and is on the Board of the Virginia FFA Foundation. Mr. Hayter was appointed to the First Bank and Trust Company Board of Directors in 2015 and elected to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 2021. Mr. Hayter serves on the Bank’s Loan, Special Assets, Bank Secrecy Act, Security and Risk, Fair Lending, and ESOP Committees. Mr. Hayter is a second-generation board member, serving alongside his father, William H. Hayter who was instrumental in the Company’s founding. Originally from Abingdon, Virginia, Mr. Hayter currently resides in Bristol, Virginia with his wife and daughter.

David A. Leonard, II graduated from Radford University in 1999 with a degree in Finance. Upon graduation, Mr. Leonard worked as a Teller and Loan Officer for First Bank & Trust Company and later worked with the Western District of North Carolina United States Bankruptcy Court. 

Mr. Leonard is currently involved in commercial property leasing, management and development and has been a successful entrepreneur for several years. Mr. Leonard has been involved in speculative home building, ownership and management of convenience stores, overseeing property management for third parties and operating a cow/calf farming operation in Russell County, Virginia. 

Mr. Leonard was elected to the First Bank & Trust Company Board of Directors in 2015 and appointed to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 2021. Mr. Leonard currently serves as Chairman of the Bank’s Compliance Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and Loan Committee. Mr. Leonard has served on several Boards in Southwest Virginia including the Russell County Chamber of Commerce, People Incorporated of Virginia and United Way of Russell County. Mr. Leonard is a second-generation board member. Mr. Leonard and his family reside on a small farm in Abingdon, VA.

Mr. Yates, currently retired, is the former Manager of Sales and Service for Old Dominion Freight Line in Wytheville, VA. Prior to his role, Mr. Yates served in several capacities for Con-Way Southern Express from 1990-2008. He was employed by Norfolk Southern Corporation from 1976-1986 where he worked as a Traffic Control Operator and Yardmaster. 

Mr. Yates was appointed to The First Bank & Trust Company Board of Directors in 2015 and appointed to the First Bancorp, Inc. Board of Directors in 2021. He is a second-generation board member following his father, C.B. Yates, Jr. who retired from the Board in 2021. 

Mr. Yates graduated from The University of Tennessee in 1990 majoring in Finance. Mr. Yates currently serves on the Bank’s Audit Committee, Compliance Committee and Loan Committee. He resides in Bland, VA with his family.

A. Eric Moore is the Chief Financial Officer for The First Bank and Trust Company and its parent holding company, First Bancorp, Inc., with 35 years of experience across the accounting and financial services industries.

Moore joined The First Bank and Trust Company as Assistant Vice President - Compliance Coordinator in 2004 before being promoted to Vice President - Compliance Officer in 2006. In addition to his compliance duties, Moore was named the Bank’s Bank Secrecy Act Officer in 2012, where he continued to foster a strong culture of compliance across the organization and consistently achieve favorable results from periodic Consumer Compliance and BSA examinations by regulatory agencies. In 2019, he assumed the role of Chief Financial Officer, after several years of assisting the previous CFO in a range of accounting, financial and regulatory reporting duties. In addition to his responsibilities as CFO, Moore has served on the Bank’s ESOP, ITRC, Fair Lending, Compliance, BSA and Investment committees and delivers financial reports during the Bank’s bi-monthly Board of Directors meetings, along with completion of financial statements and required regulatory reporting. Additionally, Moore has served on the Virginia Banker’s Association Compliance and CFO committees.

Before joining The First Bank and Trust Company, Moore held Accounting Specialist and Investment Analyst roles with The United Company of Bristol, Virginia, leading all accounting activities for a portfolio of companies under the United umbrella and, later, monitoring and identifying potential targets for investment from 1998 to 2004.

In 1990, Moore served as Senior Internal Auditor at Charter Federal Savings Bank in Bristol, Virginia. Following a 1995 merger with First American Bank, he was appointed Controller of First American’s Virginia-based subsidiary bank, First American Federal Savings Bank, a position he held until 1998.

Moore entered Public Accounting in 1988, working for the CPA firm Miller, Morgan, Agee, and Clem in Roanoke, Virginia.

Moore holds Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) certifications.

Moore is highly regarded by his peers, including his bank colleagues and contacts at the Federal Reserve, for his altruistic, emotionally intelligent, approachable leadership style.

Moore is a lifelong southwest Virginian, raised on a seven-generation farm in Glade Spring. He is an alumnus of Patrick Henry High School and a 1988 Emory & Henry College graduate, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business Management.

A native of Washington County, Virginia, Moore enjoys spending time with his family and pets, being outdoors, and remaining active in his roots by tending to his small farm.