Richard M. Adams

Richard Adams is executive chairman of the Board of United Bankshares, Incorporated, and United Bank. A Parkersburg native, he is a graduate of West Virginia University and Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University.

Adams began his banking career as a management trainee with Wachovia Bank, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Later he returned to his roots in West Virginia to join Parkersburg National Bank. At the age of 29, he was named president and CEO of what was Parkersburg National Bank (predecessor to United), a single-office, $100 million bank. Under Adams’ leadership, United has completed 33 acquisitions, building United into a nearly $30 billion regional banking company with 250 offices throughout Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Washington, D.C. United is the largest headquartered, publicly traded company in the state of West Virginia and the 38th largest banking company in the nation.

Richard Adams is a member of the Bank Policy Institute and the World President’s Organization. He is a past chairman of the board of directors of the West Virginia Business Roundtable, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the West Virginia Bankers Association, and West Virginia Kids Count. Adams has also served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank, as well as the West Virginia United Health System.

Adams was recently the recipient of the Washington Business Journal’s CEO of the Year. He has been inducted into the West Virginia University Business Hall of Fame, and has been honored as a recipient of the Ernst & Young “Lifetime Achievement Award”; The State Journal “Lorenelle White Lifetime Achievement Award”; the West Virginia Honors Award “Executive of the Year”; and the Executive Magazine “CEO of the Year Award.” Adams was selected by Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of investment research worldwide, as one of three nominees nationwide for their CEO of the Year Award. The winner was Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company.

Adams was a member of the U.S. Army Reserves and served on the vestry of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. He and his wife Liza have five children and 10 grandchildren.