The Athens First Bank and Trust announced Benjamin Ayers, the dean of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, to its local advisory board. 

Ayers joined UGA in 1996 and served as director of the J.M. Tull School of Accounting for nine years before becoming dean in 2014

Ayers has started a successful capital campaign called Building Terry that has raised $121 million to support UGA faculty and programs. Ayers has received 11 teaching awards and has been recognized as being in the top five percent of the most productive accounting researchers over the past 50 years. 

He has also been involved with the American Taxation Association and American Accounting Association, both from which he has received national research awards.