Gerard Host, director of Trustmark National Bank and president of General Banking Group, Trustmark National Bank, Christel Slaughter, a partner at SSA Consultants LLC, and Anthony Topazi, president and chief executive officer of Mississippi Power, have been appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch. Their terms begin Jan. 1, 2008, and run through Dec. 31, 2010.
Host has served in his current position since 2004. He joined Trustmark in Jackson, Miss., in 1984 as a vice president and investment division manager and has served in many capacities since then. Host is a member of the board of directors of the Mississippi Economic Council, Board of Governors, past chairman of Pulse-EFT Association/Discover Financial Services and a former member of the Mississippi Bankers Association. Host also served as past chairman of the board of the Mississippi Museum of Art and is a member of the board of directors of the Mississippi Sale of Champions–Farm Bureau. Host received a bachelors degree in economics from the University of South Alabama. He graduated from the National School of Financial and Funds Management at the University of Illinois and the Graduate School of Financial and Funds Management at the University of Oklahoma. He also earned a graduate certificate from the Louisiana State University School of Banking of the South.
Slaughter is a partner at SSA Consultants LLC, in Baton Rouge, La. From 1976 to 1983, she was a professor at Louisiana State University. Currently, Slaughter serves as chair of both the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and Advance Baton Rouge and as director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation and the Community Foundations of America. She is co-chair of the Citizens Task Force on Public Education and is a member of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement, the Academy of Management and the American Institute of Decision Sciences. She has been named one of the best speakers in Baton Rouge and has served on transition teams for four Louisiana governors. She received her bachelor's degree in 1975 and doctorate in 1979 from Louisiana State University.
Topazi has served in his current position since 2004. Before joining Gulfport, Miss.-based Mississippi Power, he served as executive vice president at Southern Company Generation & Energy Marketing and as senior vice president of Southern Power. He began his career with Alabama Power in 1969. Topazi is chairman of Momentum Mississippi, a public-private partnership appointed by the governor to enhance the state's economic development future. He also serves as chairman of the Gulf Coast Business Council and the Renaissance Corporation. Topazi is chair-elect of the Mississippi Economic Council and vice chairman of the Mississippi Partnership for Economic Development. He is a member of the United Way of America DeTocqueville Society and serves on the boards of directors for the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Hancock Bank, Infinity Science Center, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce. He previously served as vice chairman of the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal. Topazi earned a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University and completed the advanced management program at Harvard University.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta branch directors provide economic information from the Branch territory to the district Bank's president and head office directors, who use the information in formulating monetary policy and making discount rate recommendations. Slaughter was appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Host and Topazi were appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch by the Atlanta Fed's head office board of directors. The Board of Governors appoints three of the directors of the New Orleans Branch, and the Atlanta head office directors appoint four.