Grayson Hall, president and chief executive of New York-listed Regions Financial, has been elected by the firm’s board of directors to succeed Earnest Deavenport as chairman, with effect from May 16.

Deavenport will retire from the board on the eve of the company’s 2013 annual meeting of stockholders, the firm said in a statement.

Deavenport has served as a director since 1999 and assumed the position of non-executive chairman in 2010, while Hall has served as Regions’s president and CEO since March 2010.

Hall started his banking career in 1980 when he joined the management training program at AmSouth Bank, which merged with Regions in 2006.  

The board also elected Charles McCrary, CEO of Alabama Power, as chairman of the nominating and corporate governance committee, also effective from May 16. He will serve as the board’s lead independent director.

Regions Financial is a provider of consumer and commercial banking, wealth management, mortgage, and insurance products and services.