Our Board of Directors

Dominik Mjartan leads American Bancorp and its subsidiary American Pride Bank as CEO. He also serves as Vice Chairman of Optus Bank and Optus Financial Corporation. He previously served as President and CEO of Optus from 2017 until August 2024. Under his leadership, Optus Bank transformed from a troubled bank to a high-performing, innovative, digital, mission-driven bank. Optus’ total assets increased more than 1,100% from $47 million to more than $600 million. Loan portfolio has increased from $27 million to more than $400 million in seven years, and the bank’s shareholders have benefited from common equity growth of more than 240%.

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Dominik is also a founding director of Climate First Bank, a director of the Community Development Bankers Association, a director of the National Bankers Association, and was formerly Chair of the CDFI Coalition. He is a regular guest on NPR’s Marketplace and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, American Banker, and other national platforms discussing banking trends, innovations, and financial inclusion. In 2022, Dominik was appointed by the Chairman of the FDIC to the FDIC Community Bank Advisory Board and in 2023, reappointed to another term. 

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He was recently recognized as EY Entrepreneur of the Year in the Southeast Region of the U.S. He spent more than a decadeas a senior executive officer at a leading community development bank, Southern Bancorp, most recently as the Executive Vice President of Southern Bancorp, Inc., a holding company for Southern Bancorp Bank and CEO of an affiliated lendingcompany Southern Bancorp Community Partners. He led the strategic realignment and transformation of the SouthernBancorp enterprise from a $400 million community bank to a $1.2 billion financial institution. He has also served as Chair, Finance Chair, or Director of numerous community development, education, and social justice organizations. 

Dominik immigrated to the U.S. from the former Czechoslovakia at the age of 16. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and as a Donaghey Scholar with a B.S. in management from University of Arkansas, Little Rock. He then earned an MBA at the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom, graduating with distinction. He has three children with his wife of 23 years, Georgia Mjartan, who is President and CEO of Central Carolina Community Foundation.