Willam Williams, III Biography and Net Worth

Lee Williams is the vice chairman of the company and one of the original founders of the bank. Prior to starting Live Oak Bank, Lee spent 19 years in corporate banking at Wachovia and worked for 14 years at Vine Street Financial doing SBA lending. Lee began his banking career in 1973 at Wachovia, where he worked with Wachovia Services, Inc, then Wachovia Regional Corporate Lending, calling on and lending to mid-market regional companies. In 1987, he relocated to Wilmington, NC, where he managed the Wachovia Corporate Lending group for the three-county area of southeastern North Carolina. In 1992, he re-joined Chip Mahan at Cardinal Bancshares as they began Vine Street Financial, a niche SBA lending division, of Vine Street Trust Company. Lee held several positions within this group including president and senior SBA lender. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Vine Street Financial became a division of BB&T, where Lee served as a senior SBA lender, resigning in May of 2007 to found Live Oak Bank. Lee graduated in 1973 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. He currently serves on several private company boards, as managing member, and has served in the capacity of president and treasurer on numerous charitable and nonprofit organizations in Wilmington and elsewhere in North Carolina.