Michael Rabb
Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer
When I graduated from LA Tech in 1973, I had no idea I would spend 68% of my life as a banker and employed by the same bank Delta Bank (name changed on 1/1/02 from LA Central Bank under the same ownership). My work experience prior to banking was one summer teaching swimming lessons and life guarding and 4 summers working offshore in the oil industry. So, as you can see everything I learned was “on the job training”. We opened our doors to a new bank on October 1, 1973 with 7 employees. I did it all from teller, note department, bookkeeping, picking up the mail and changing light bulbs when needed. No job was too big or too small. We just wanted to make our bank a success.
During this time my wife Mary Hazlip Rabb and I raised our two children-Rebecca and Michael. Today we have three grandsons and enjoy their visits and keeping up with their activities.
Part of being a community banker is being involved in the local fabric of the market you serve. I have served as the president of the Ferriday Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and St. Patrick Church Men’s Group. Additionally, I was a founding Director of Delta Charter School for Math, Science and Technology and served on that board for 5 years. Education is a key essential to the health of a community and I am glad to do my part.
Delta Bank has always encouraged its employees to further their education and I took advantage of their generosity by attending and graduating from LSU Graduate School of Banking and the University of Oklahoma’s National Commercial Lending School. Both schools gave me a broader knowledge of my chosen career and allowed me to help my customers expand their businesses and realize their dreams.
When I graduated from LA Tech in 1973, I had no idea I would spend 68% of my life as a banker and employed by the same bank Delta Bank (name changed on 1/1/02 from LA Central Bank under the same ownership). My work experience prior to banking was one summer teaching swimming lessons and life guarding and 4 summers working offshore in the oil industry. So, as you can see everything I learned was “on the job training”. We opened our doors to a new bank on October 1, 1973 with 7 employees. I did it all from teller, note department, bookkeeping, picking up the mail and changing light bulbs when needed. No job was too big or too small. We just wanted to make our bank a success.
During this time my wife Mary Hazlip Rabb and I raised our two children-Rebecca and Michael. Today we have three grandsons and enjoy their visits and keeping up with their activities.
Part of being a community banker is being involved in the local fabric of the market you serve. I have served as the president of the Ferriday Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and St. Patrick Church Men’s Group. Additionally, I was a founding Director of Delta Charter School for Math, Science and Technology and served on that board for 5 years. Education is a key essential to the health of a community and I am glad to do my part.
Delta Bank has always encouraged its employees to further their education and I took advantage of their generosity by attending and graduating from LSU Graduate School of Banking and the University of Oklahoma’s National Commercial Lending School. Both schools gave me a broader knowledge of my chosen career and allowed me to help my customers expand their businesses and realize their dreams.
As I stated earlier, I have been in banking for 48 years. I have seen many changes in interest rates, regulation, deregulation, paper transactions to computer transactions, no credit cards to debit cards, monthly paper bank statements to paperless statements. The list can go on and on, but I can say without hesitation that the banking industry has changed with the times and the benefactors of all these changes has been our banking customers.
By the way, before going to work in a bank I had never been inside of a bank. So, as you can see, I became a banker by chance and not by design.