Contact: Sameera Jordan
Media Relations Manager
Sameera.Jordan@BankWithUnited.com

 Get to know the woman leading company culture at United Bank

For Ami Shaver, a Parkersburg native, accepting a job at United Bank three decades ago was one of the best decisions she ever made. The oldest of four and the first in her family to graduate from college, Ami is no stranger to being a trailblazer and a leader whom others wish to follow. She has dedicated her entire career to the development and betterment of United Bank, and since joining the Bank as a fresh college graduate, she has never looked back.

From a young age, Ami had high aspirations. “I always knew I wanted to be a leader. And as the oldest of four, I found that I was pretty good at telling others what to do,” she jokes. “I originally thought I’d enjoy being a schoolteacher for this reason, but as I got older and learned more about the world, I decided to broaden my options and think of leadership on a grander scale. So, I eventually changed my mind and decided that I wanted to be the first woman to serve as the president of the United States.”

But when it came time to decide on a college major, a new interest in becoming a certified public accountant (CPA) led Ami to pursue a business degree with a concentration in accounting. After a brief stint at West Virginia University in Morgantown, the University of Maryland, and time living abroad in England, she graduated from WVU at Parkersburg in 1995 and set off on her career journey.

Ami first joined United Bank as an analyst on the Shareholder Relations team, but as she puts it, she developed a desire to make a greater impact. At this same time, it was announced that the Bank was opening a brokerage company and needed an employee to become Series 27 licensed. So, with only two years on the job, Ami jumped at this opportunity and threw her hat in the ring for a chance to make a difference for the Bank. “After months of studying and anxiously enduring the monthlong waiting period, I found out I passed the exam!”

Ami proved herself to be an asset to the Company and began her tenure as one of United Brokerage Services, Inc.’s earliest employees. “United had faith in me and allowed me the chance to prove myself. I wasn’t going to let them down.”

Ami would go on to work for United Brokerage Services, Inc., a subsidiary of United Bank, until 2020. During this time, she served in all capacities, including operations, sales, and management. She was United’s first financial advisor in Parkersburg and went on to also receive her Series 7, 63, 65, and 24 licenses, as well as a license for WV Life Insurance.

She worked solely in Brokerage for seven years before the Bank identified another line of business in need of her leadership. In 2004, she was tapped to be director of Retail Sales and Service, all while maintaining her role in Brokerage.

In 2020, Ami decided to move full-time to Retail, handling the difficult task of managing all retail branch locations during the COVID-19 Pandemic, as well as Customer Care Centers. Following United’s 2020 acquisition of Carolina Financial Corporation, she was also responsible for the integration of the more than 72 CresCom Bank locations and the training of new employees, mostly virtual – a task which she described as “climbing Mt. Everest without any food or water.”

But as with every challenge Ami faced in the past, she was able to accomplish it and left the team better than she found it. “I am not afraid of hard work and am always looking for ways to make things better. People, processes, and procedures – there is always room for improvement. I approached this new opportunity with that same mentality,” said Ami.

At the beginning of 2021, Ami was once again called upon to lend her leadership skills to another line of business with room for growth – Human Resources. “The director of Human Resources was retiring, and with the recent Carolina Financial Corp. merger, the Bank needed a seasoned veteran to come and help with the transition,” Ami recounts. “At United, our Executive Chairman Richard Adams always says, ‘the challenge to be the best never ends,’ and I take that to heart.” Ami saw this as an opportunity to build upon United’s HR function and establish a team befitting the rapidly growing Company, one that could support the nearly 3,000 employees now under her care.

Ami went on to lead the Bank’s Retail and HR teams for the next four years. However, having recently completed United’s 34th acquisition of Piedmont Bancorp, Inc., and welcoming another 16 branch locations and new employees to the United Bank fold, senior management recognized each business function’s need for a leader’s undivided attention.

As of January 2025, Ami handed the Retail Sales and Services team off to a new director to allow her the opportunity to focus solely on leading United’s Human Resources department as executive vice president, working to strengthen and improve the culture across the organization and reinforce the core values of the Company.

Throughout her career, Ami has never lost sight of United’s core values. Teamwork, Integrity, Hard Work, and Caring are the foundations of United’s business, and each employee works hard to uphold these in all that they do. Ami has not only acted out of those values, but she also imparted them to everyone she has worked with. She has never turned down a challenge and has always welcomed the opportunity to take on a new venture, often juggling two or more responsibilities at a time, giving each 110%. Leading several essential teams is a tremendous undertaking, which the Company recognized when she received United’s highest honor – the third annual United Values award in the teamwork category.

“Words cannot describe how proud I am to be part of the United Bank team. Over the past 30 years, I have been surrounded by some of the most dedicated and talented people,” said Ami. “The spirit of teamwork runs deep within and throughout all our departments at United, and I am honored to have been able to be a part of so many of them.”

As she celebrates her 30th anniversary with the Bank this month, Ami’s dedication and hard work are evident in her tenure and her constant evolution with the Company, and it is something we at United are very proud to have witnessed and benefited from. Adding to her milestone year, she was recently named a member of West Virginia Executive’s 2025 Sharp Shooters Class, a group of 10 West Virginia business leaders making an impact across the state. In addition, she was featured on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square to highlight her remarkable anniversary in the industry.

But Ami is just as dedicated in her personal life as her professional one. A devoted wife and mother, Ami says her biggest accomplishment is her two children – Calli and Dylan. Ami attributes her work ethic to her father, who instilled in her the importance of hard work and always being able to take care of herself. As a mother, she and her husband, Steve, also tried to pass this lesson along to their kids, which turned out to be another great success of hers. Her daughter Calli recently graduated from West Virginia University’s School of Medicine with a degree in physical therapy and is employed as a physical therapist in Raleigh, NC. Her son, Dylan, is currently in his third year of medical school at the Morgantown campus of West Virginia University.