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Learn More About the Newest Addition to the Bank: Monty Watson and United Bankshares in Atlanta

In January 2025, United Bankshares, Inc. completed the acquisition of metro Atlanta-based Piedmont Bancorp, Inc., the parent company of The Piedmont Bank. This merger not only represents the 34th in United’s history, but it also signifies the beginning of a new chapter for the Bank, with its formal introduction to the Georgia region as United Bankshares.

With 16 locations and nearly 150 former Piedmont Bank employees supporting the business across Georgia’s Gwinnett, DeKalb, Forsyth, White, Hall, Barrow, Fannin, Cobb, Paulding, and Fulton counties, United Bankshares continues to prioritize excellence in service as it establishes a presence in its newest markets. The Bank prides itself on its local decision-making practices and personalized service that customers have come to expect since 1839, with the insights, technologies, products, and services of a large bank – and a deep commitment to the communities in which it operates.

After we celebrated National Georgia Day on August 3, we are continuing to champion the state throughout the month, as we spotlight our newest locations and employees in Greater Atlanta.

Monty Watson knows a thing or two about leading a business. In his 45 years of experience, he has worked at several banks and served as CEO of three, navigating a series of mergers and acquisitions during his tenure in the industry. Whether tasked with building a new bank from the ground up, cleaning up a struggling bank, or growing and expanding into new markets, there is little Monty hasn’t experienced in his career. Introducing United Bankshares to Georgia as the Bank’s newest Regional President is simply the most recent item on his long list of career endeavors.

Even from a young age, Monty wasn’t one to shy away from lofty goals. Like many Athens natives, he always knew he’d wind up at the University of Georgia. But more specifically, Monty had ambitions of one day joining the Georgia Bulldogs football team, a feat he accomplished as a walk-on wide receiver freshman year. However, after a serious shoulder injury ended his college football career that same year, he had to find a new dream to chase – along with finishing his education, of course.

In fact, without football, Monty turned his attention toward his education and what would ultimately become his working career, starting a part-time job at the local Citizens & Southern Bank. “I mostly worked in Operations, so I got to see a lot of different sides of the bank, and I fell in love with it all,” Monty said. So much so that he decided to switch his major from economics to finance and stay with C&S for the next three years, before moving to Atlanta after graduation to officially begin his banking career with First National Bank of Atlanta.

Following an 18-month management training program, Monty was assigned his first formal role with the bank. “My first real banking job was in correspondent banking, an area that doesn’t exist much anymore,” said Monty. “I basically managed relationships with smaller banks who would leverage our size and resources for services that they didn’t have access to.” After a couple of years in that role, he was recruited for a commercial lending job with First Union Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, while simultaneously pursuing an MBA at the Duke Fuqua School of Business. Two years later, when First Union announced plans to expand into the Atlanta area, Monty didn’t hesitate to raise his hand to make the move back home to Georgia.

The next several years were spent establishing First Union’s commercial banking business in Atlanta, with Monty eventually taking over the team. However, when a friend called and asked if he was interested in a senior lender role at his own bank, First Gwinnett, Monty was open to the opportunity. “I don’t know if he caught me at a weak moment or if it was just destiny,” he said. “But I agreed to take the job, which wound up being a pretty harrowing, albeit amazing experience.”

He describes the shock of transitioning from a large organization with endless resources and services to the “roll up your sleeves” culture of a small bank where everyone was expected to know how to do everything. “Aside from correspondent banking, this was my real-life introduction to community banking,” he said. But Monty quickly learned the ropes and came to love the entrepreneurial aspect of community banking. In fact, when his friend left the bank a few years later, Monty was presented with another opportunity to take his place and lead First Gwinnett Bank as CEO.

The years that followed would culminate in a series of new business ventures and turnaround acquisitions with Monty at the helm, beginning with the sale of First Gwinnett.

When the board announced plans to sell the bank, Monty decided he was ready to set out on his own and founded The Peachtree Bank. Under his leadership, Peachtree would grow to four locations and $600 million in assets in just eight years, attracting the attention of large acquirers looking to purchase the young bank. Peachtree found an ideal candidate in Alabama National Bank, which was later acquired by Royal Bank of Canada. For Monty, who stayed on post-merger, being part of a large corporate structure didn’t have the same charm as it once had. “I wasn’t too keen on community banks when I first joined one, but moving back to a large, institutional, and bureaucratic organization – I guess I realized that my value was in what I could do for my customers, and I felt like I couldn’t do much for them in that setting,” he said.

So, in the heart of the 2008 financial crisis, Monty once again decided to go out on his own. And although he and his team had raised the capital and were prepared to begin doing business, they were encouraged by regulators to use these resources to rehabilitate an existing bank rather than form a new one in this volatile market. And so, in June 2009, the team closed on the purchase of Republic Bank, with Monty as CEO.

“The first three or four years of existence of the bank were spent really doing two jobs,” said Monty. “One was growing a good, sound, new bank. And the other was cleaning up and liquidating a problem bank. All within one financial structure.”

It wasn’t until 2014 that Monty and his team felt comfortable enough to begin the move from defense to offense – going after new opportunities in the market, hiring more people, and expanding. It was during this time that the bank, now known as The Piedmont Bank, made its first acquisition of Mountain Valley Community Bank in North Georgia in 2017, followed by Westside Bank in 2021. Around that time, Monty also began meeting with United Bankshares, Inc. CEO, Rick Adams, about the potential of a deal between their two banks. “And here we are today.”

Now part of United Bankshares, Monty looks forward to continuing his banking legacy. In fact, two of his five sons also work at the Bank. And with his youngest still in college, there’s potential for the family business to continue to grow.

Monty says he enjoys a fixer-upper outside of work, as well. He and his wife, Gaye, are in the process of building their fourth house. “We both love projects. The construction is chaos, and it’s turned life upside down, but that’s OK. We’re enjoying it.” The two are also avid travelers, so it’s no hardship being away from home. They recently returned from a two-week vacation in Italy.

What does your new role as Georgia Regional President entail?

I’m honestly still learning that myself! This role is still fairly new, but so far, I spend a lot of time working with lenders and market presidents on business opportunities, loans, deposit opportunities, you name it. I love going out on calls and visiting customers and things like that, but the reality of working at a bigger company means that I also spend more of my time than I used to in meetings and Teams calls. It’s an adjustment, but that’s just a necessity in a larger organization.

We’ve also maintained some of our own internal local meetings to keep communication flowing in both directions. I can keep up with what’s going on here on the ground and share what I’m hearing around the company, so that works pretty well.

How would you describe the Bank’s Atlanta business?

We’ve always considered ourselves a commercial community bank. Our business in this region has traditionally been about 95% commercial from a lending perspective. We deal with real estate investors, both commercial and residential, and we do a lot of residential construction and development work. But operating companies are a significant focus as well. Commercial deposits are always going to be larger than consumer deposits, so that’s something we have always pursued.

But where we have an advantage – similar to United – is what we’re able to offer customers at our size and scale. We have very strong, experienced lenders and support staff. Our commercial expertise, for example, is at a level that you would expect at a big bank, but with added flexibility that’s more typical at a smaller bank. People can reach a decision maker much quicker here, and we have always recognized “speed to market” as one of our key competitive advantages.

What made United a good fit for The Piedmont Bank?

What drew me to United is that it has a similar business structure to our own. It felt more like a decentralized decision-making process, meaning decisions were made closer to the customer and dependent on their individual needs. That’s always been really important to us. When we considered selling Piedmont, this was something we strived to maintain and worried about losing as we got bigger. And that’s one of the things that drew us to United. They like to say that they “got big and stayed small,” and that is the exact kind of business we envisioned joining. So, we were able to join the United fold, become part of a much larger organization, and keep what was most important about being small – and that’s remaining close to the customer.

That’s what I hope comes across to customers. We’re still the same community bank as before with local, experienced bankers to meet your every need. But now we’re even better positioned to serve our community with more resources and a larger organization backing us up.