
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 4, 1994                   TAG: 9405060020
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRST UNION PROMOTES VA. EXECUTIVE

First Union Corp. on Tuesday promoted David Carroll, vice chairman for general banking of Roanoke-based First Union National Bank of Virginia, to president and director of First Union National Bank of Georgia.

He will be succeeded in Roanoke by Robert W. Helms, chief commercial banking executive for First Union National Bank of North Carolina. The changes will be effective June 1.

Carroll said Tuesday he traces his association with the Virginia bank from the summer of 1992, when he helped conduct First Union's examination of Dominion Bankshares Corp. of Roanoke prior to the signing of a merger agreement between the two companies.

"Psychologically, I find myself involved here," Carroll said. "Roanoke is a really hard place to leave."

The offer to head the Georgia bank came suddenly, he said. Until then, "I thought and hoped to be here a long time."

Carroll said he worked for First Union in Atlanta 10 years ago setting up a financial services office. Carroll, 37, said he has friends in Atlanta and knows many of the bank's Georgia customers.

The presidency in Georgia has been vacant for more than a year, since Benjamin P. Jenkins III, now president of First Union's Virginia bank, moved to Roanoke.

Carroll described his successor as "a banker's banker."

He said Helms coordinated First Union's acquisition of First American Metro Corp. of McLean starting in February 1993. Helms, Carroll said, has held a number of "big jobs" with First Union and is a community-oriented person.

Helms, 47, joined First Union in 1969. He has been executive vice president and regional executive in Greensboro and Asheville, N.C., and commercial banking manager and city executive in Wilmington, N.C. He is a native of Monroe, N.C.

Helms will be succeeded by James K. Buchanan, chief financial officer of First Union National Bank of North Carolina.

by CNB