The Farmers Bank & Trust Board of Directors recently announced the addition of Sonja Hubbard as a Director. In addition, Mrs. Hubbard will serve as the Audit committee chair for the Bank. While Farmers Bank is majority female-owned, Sonja will be the first female to serve on the Board of Directors.
“Adding Sonja Hubbard to our Farmers Bank & Trust Board of Directors is an enormous win for the Bank,” said Farmers Bank & Trust Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, Chris Gosnell. “Sonja’s proven leadership and an extensive list of national accomplishments will be tremendously valuable as we look to the future of the Bank.”
Reared in Ashdown, Arkansas, Sonja Hubbard is a Certified Public Accountant who received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Sonja Hubbard is currently a Principal for the Yates Group, Inc., which manages retained assets from E-Z Mart Stores, Inc., where she was formerly CEO for 20 years. The family-owned convenience store assets were sold in 2018.
Sonja was named the 1999 Outstanding CPA in Business & Industry by the Arkansas Society of CPAs, the 2009 Accountant of the Year in Industry/Government by the University of Arkansas and was recognized as a Woman of Influence in the Food Industry by the Griffin Report. She was inducted into CSN’s Convenience Store Hall of Fame in 2010 and, the same year, received the Texarkana Regional Arts & Humanities Hero Award for Leadership. She received the C.E. Palmer Achievement Award and Leadership Texarkana’s Idalee Hawkins Leader of the Year recognition in 2019.
Sonja has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis after serving as a Director and President of the Little Rock Branch of the Bank. From 2009-2010 she served as Chairman of the National Association of Convenience Stores, representing the nation’s 152,000 stores and its members. She was the first woman and legacy, following her father’s footsteps, to serve in this capacity. Sonja is also a director for Opportunities, Inc., CHRISTUS Northeast Texas, Arkansas Research Alliance, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Board and Foundation, UAMS Fund Foundation, University of Arkansas Accounting Advisory Board, AR-TX Regional Economic Development Incorporated, and Riverbend Water District.
Sonja Hubbard resides in Texarkana, Texas, with her husband, Bob Hubbard, and they have one daughter, Lauren, who lives in New York City.
“When my parents, Jim and FaEllen Yates, founded E-Z Mart in 1970, they were young, visionary entrepreneurs but not wealthy. They relied on the support of community banks, including Farmers Bank & Trust, to get them started. Farmers financed stores #25 and #26 in Magnolia, Arkansas beginning a relationship that continued for many decades, meeting many more expansion needs. Having lived and seen the value of these relationships, I am excited to now be able to serve and support from the other side of the relationship.” says Hubbard.
