Russ Lam, CPA   
                                                                                                            

Russ Lam, CPA, was an auditor practicing public accounting in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico for over three decades before joining the Lea County State Bank (LCSB) team as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer on February 1, 2023.  He most recently served as an equity audit partner in the Lubbock office of Carr, Riggs & Ingram (“CRI”), a top 25 US CPA firm, but retired from that firm in September 2022.  Between CRI and LCSB, Russ provided consulting services to two banks and before that Russ had his own firm in Lubbock from 2003 until merging into CRI in 2019, that specialized in financial institutions.

Russ has specialized in financial institutions throughout his career with diverse experience that allows him to bring a unique perspective to LCSB’s service - an understanding of financial institutions, commercial customers and related credits, board and audit committee fiduciary respon-sibilities, and regulator and auditor perceptions of credit risk and other expectations.  Russ had over thirty years of experience in accounting and financial management, including four years as a CFO, before joining LCSB.  He is licensed to practice public accountancy in Texas and New Mexico and is a member of the AICPA, TXCPA, and NMSCPA and the Financial Managers Society.

Russ has served on the board and as an instructor for Texas Tech University’s School of Banking for over a decade.  He has served as a member on the Lubbock Meals on Wheels board and as Treasurer and Finance Committee chairman for seven years and as President and on the board of the newly formed Lubbock Meals on Wheels Foundation.  He has served on the TXCPA’s Professional Standards Committee, including subcommittees for Accounting Standards, Attestation Standards (Chair), and PCAOB Standards and on the steering committee for the TXCPA’s annual financial institutions seminar.

Russ has extensive experience with bank financial statement audits, integrated audits of bank financial statements and internal control under FDICIA, related HUD audits, director exams, and outsourced internal audits and bank regulatory compliance and loan review. He built a professional audit practice in West Texas and eastern New Mexico which included:

• financial statement audits for financial institutions (banks, credit unions, and extensive experience with FDICIA and HUD), directors exams, outsourced internal audits (banks, credit unions, and Farm Credit associations), and other services to financial institutions;
• Sarbanes-Oxley (“SOX”) compliance, management testing, outsourced internal audit, and advisory services for a member-owned cooperative association in the Farm Credit System ($2.0 billion in assets with 13 branches across Texas, he headed SOX adoption for this association and two others – one in Texas and one in New Mexico), he also assisted 2 large public companies with SOX implementation; and
• audits of combined groups of companies (oil & gas pipeline construction, nationwide and multistate franchisors and distributors, with multiple entity types); a limited liability company that manages oil & gas producing affiliates and issues significant debt to support these activities; not-for-profits, and employee benefit plans (including 401(k) and KSOP).

A Texas Tech University Summa Cum Laude graduate with a BBA in Accounting, Russ was also the Highest Ranking Graduate in the College of Business in May 1988, and a Distinguished Accounting Senior, among other achievements.  He started his accounting career with an international accounting firm (KPMG), where, in 8 years he rose from new staff to Senior Manager and was selected for a 2-year rotation in the international headquarters in New York.

Russ resides in Lubbock, Texas, and maintains an apartment in Hobbs, New Mexico.  He generally spends 4 nights (5 days) a week in Hobbs, and 3 nights (weekends) in Lubbock.