Alton Frailey Appointed to Southside Bancshares, Inc. Board of Directors

TYLER, Texas, Dec. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Southside Bancshares, Inc. (the “Company”) (NASDAQ:SBSI), the holding company of Southside Bank (the “Bank”), announced the appointment of Alton L. Frailey to the Company’s board of directors on November 24, 2021, effective January 1, 2022, increasing the size of the Company’s board to 17 members. Mr. Frailey was also appointed to the Bank’s board of directors, effective January 1, 2022, increasing the size of the Bank board to 18 members.

Residing in the greater Houston area, Mr. Frailey is President of Alton L. Frailey & Associates, LLC, specializing in leadership development, community engagement, school board team building and executive coaching. Mr. Frailey has been involved in education for 35 years, serving most recently as the past superintendent for Katy Independent School District.

“We are very pleased to welcome Alton to Southside,” stated Lee R. Gibson, Chief Executive Officer of Southside Bancshares, Inc.   “Alton’s extensive experience in executive leadership and administration will enrich our boards of directors. We look forward to benefiting from his expertise.”

Mr. Frailey’s leadership roles include serving as chairman of the Stephen F. Austin State University Board of Regents and the University Interscholastic League Legislative Council, as well as president of the American Association of School Administrators. He has also served on the board of many community and civic organizations, including the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce, Katy Area Economic Development Council and Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas. His efforts have received numerous honors and awards including Region 4 Administrator of the Year, Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals and the Trailblazer Award by South Dallas Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc.

About Southside Bancshares, Inc.

Southside Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Tyler, Texas, with approximately $7.14 billion in assets as of September 30, 2021, that wholly-owns Southside Bank.   Southside Bank currently operates 56 branches and a network of 73 ATMs/ITMs throughout East Texas, Southeast Texas and the greater Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and Houston areas. Serving customers since 1960, Southside Bank is a community-focused financial institution that offers a full range of financial products and services to individuals and businesses. These products and services include consumer and commercial loans, mortgages, deposit accounts, safe deposit boxes, treasury management, wealth management, trust services, brokerage services and an array of online and mobile services.

To learn more about Southside Bancshares, Inc., please visit our investor relations website at https://investors.southside.com.    Our investor relations site provides a detailed overview of our activities, financial information and historical stock price data.   To receive e-mail notification of company news, events and stock activity, please register on the E-mail Notification portion of the website.   Questions or comments may be directed to Lindsey Bailes at (903) 630-7965, or lindsey.bailes@southside.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements of other than historical fact that are contained in this press release and in other written materials, documents and oral statements issued by or on behalf of the Company may be considered to be “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of and subject to the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, nor should they be relied upon as representing management’s views as of any subsequent date.  These statements may include words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “anticipate,” “appear,” “believe,” “could,” “should,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “would,” “seek,” “intend,” “probability,” “risk,” “goal,” “target,” “objective,” “plans,” “potential,” and similar expressions.  Forward-looking statements are statements with respect to the Company’s beliefs, plans, expectations, objectives, goals, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions and future performance and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements.  For example, discussions of the effect of our expansion, benefits of the Share Repurchase Plan, trends in asset quality, capital, liquidity, the Company's ability to sell nonperforming assets, expense reductions, planned operational efficiencies and earnings from growth and certain market risk disclosures, including the impact of interest rates, tax reform, inflation and other economic factors are based upon information presently available to management and are dependent on choices about key model characteristics and assumptions and are subject to various limitations.  By their nature, certain of the market risk disclosures are only estimates and could be materially different from what actually occurs in the future.  Accordingly, our results could materially differ from those that have been estimated. The most recent factor that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated by our forward-looking statements include the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related variants on our business, financial position, operations and prospects, including our ability to continue our business activities in certain communities we serve, the duration of the pandemic and its continued effects on financial markets, a reduction in financial transactions and business activities resulting in decreased deposits and reduced loan originations, increases in unemployment rates impacting our borrowers’ ability to repay their loans, our ability to manage liquidity in a rapidly changing and unpredictable market, additional interest rate changes by the Federal Reserve and other government actions in response to the pandemic, including regulations or laws enacted to counter the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.

Additional information concerning the Company and its business, including additional factors that could materially affect the Company’s financial results, is included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, under “Part I - Item 1. Forward Looking Information” and in the Company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The Company disclaims any obligation to update any factors or to announce publicly the result of revisions to any of the forward-looking statements included herein to reflect future events or developments.

Investors Relations: Lindsey Bailes
lindsey.bailes@southside.com