First Farmers and Merchants Corporation announced that Jennifer J. McConnell has joined the bank as Chief Credit Officer. Prior to joining First Farmers, McConnell served as Executive Vice President, Managing Senior Credit Officer for Commercial, Retail/Small Business, SBA and Equipment/Franchise Financing Divisions for BankUnited, a Miami, Florida based bank with $37 billion in assets. She was responsible for the processing, due diligence, credit analysis, underwriting, credit approval, portfolio management, loan closing, loan documentation, construction loan management, legal, booking/funding, servicing and secondary market teams within the above-mentioned divisions of BankUnited.

In addition, Jennifer oversaw SOX review, credit review, internal audits, and compliance/fair lending exams for the same divisions. Prior to joining BankUnited in 2017, she served as Senior Vice President and Senior Credit Manager for First Tennessee Bank (First Horizon) where she was responsible for centralized credit teams and director of their SBA/government guaranteed lending unit. She previously served as SBA National Manager and Business Banking Team Lead for Fifth Third Bank and Senior Vice President of Business Banking at Regions Bank.

She started her banking career in 1997 in the management training program of SunTrust Bank. McConnell is a Nashville native and lives in the Franklin area with her family. She is a graduate of Centre College with a B.A. in Economics.