One of banking's longest-tenured CEOs will hand off job to son

United Bankshares in Charleston, West Virginia, will soon have a new chief executive for the first time in nearly five decades.

The $29.3 billion-asset bank said in a regulatory filing late Monday that Chairman and CEO Richard Adams Sr., 75, will step down after nearly 47 years as the company’s top executive. He will move into an executive chairman role. He will be succeeded by his son, United President Richard Adams Jr. The changes are effective April 1.

The elder Adams is the longest-serving CEO among the top 100 U.S. banks. He has led United and its predecessor bank, the Parkersburg National Bank in West Virginia, since 1976, according to the filing. He was 28 at the time. Under his leadership, United grew from a single-office, $100 million-asset operation to a regional bank with 250 offices in seven states and the District of Columbia.

Adams led the bank's public listing in 1987 and accelerated its expansion via a series of bank acquisitions. Its footprint now spans West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. While formally based in Charleston, the bank also maintains a second headquarters office in Washington.

The younger Adams, 53, has been president of United since 2014. Previously, he was executive vice president of the company from 2000 to 2014. He is also the vice chairman of United’s bank unit. He joined the company in 1994. Earlier in his career, he was an attorney at Bowles Rice LLP in West Virginia after earning a law degree from the Washington and Lee School of Law in Virginia.

United said it also had promoted James Consagra Jr. to president of the company, effective in April. Consagra, 61, has been chief operating officer of the company since 2014.