Michael Kramer Named CEO and Director of First Security Group

Financial services veteran Michael Kramer has been named
chief executive officer and director of First Security Group, Inc.
(NASDAQ: FSGI). As previously announced on December 6, 2011, Mr.
Kramer was appointed as chief executive officer of FSGBank, N.A.,
the wholly-owned community-bank subsidiary of First Security.
FSGBank is a $1.1 billion bank based in Chattanooga, Tennessee with
31 full-service offices in eastern and middle Tennessee and
northern Georgia. Certainly 2011 has been a year of change and
transition for FSG, said First Security Group Lead Director Carol
H. Jackson. With this appointment, Mike can now lead the company in
all aspects. As a shareholder of FSG, I consider today an exciting
day as we can focus our complete attention on creating a
successful, profitable community bank. Mr. Kramer most recently was
managing director of Ridley Capital Group, a private
equity/merchant banking firm focused on financial service
companies. He has more than 20 years of executive leadership in
commercial and retail banking, correspondent banking, credit and
risk management, treasury management services, banking
operations/technology and market management. For the past decade he
has focused on operational and credit turnarounds in
super-community and community banks, and has worked extensively
with regulatory agencies including the Federal Reserve Bank and
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Mr. Kramer succeeds
Roger Holley, who resigned as CEO in April 2011. Mr. Kramer will
also serve as President of First Security and FSGBank as well as a
director of FSGBank, subject to regulatory non-objections. Every
day, I become more energized about the opportunity to create a
special and unique community bank for our customers, employees and
shareholders. With the combination of strong existing and select
new employee talent, we will provide superior service to our
customers as well as be active within our communities, Mr. Kramer
said. We look forward to 2012 and creating the next chapter for
FSGBank. As an inducement to Mr. Kramer joining First Security and
as a material term of his at-will employment agreement, he was
awarded 35,000 shares of First Security's common stock. The stock
closed at $1.78 on December 28, 2011. As a result of the grant,
First Security has approximately 1,684,000 issued and outstanding
shares. Prior to his tenure with Ridley Capital, Mr. Kramer was
president and CEO of Ohio Legacy Corporation, a bank holding
company based in Wooster, Ohio. During his five-year tenure, he led
a Board and management reorganization, executed a credit turnaround
strategy and balance sheet transformation, which resulted in the
recapitalization of the company by Excel Bancorp. From 1999 to 2004
he was chief operating officer and chief technology officer at
Evansville, Indiana-based Integra Bank Corporation, where he led a
team that transformed operating, technology and product platforms.
His teams built the banks Treasury Management, Electronic Banking
and Mortgage Banking businesses. Among other career highlights,
Mike led the correspondent banking practice at Cincinnati-based
Star Bank,N.A. (kna as US bank) building the practice into the
second largest Correspondent Bank in Kentucky and Ohio, was a
member of the Strategic Advisory Board for Fiserv/CBS from 2001 to
2004 and led various key initiatives with Deluxe Corporation, a
Fortune 500 financial services company. Mr. Kramer and his wife Meg
have been active on various boards in the communities in which
theyve lived including the Canton Symphony Orchestra, Main Street
Wooster, North Coast Young Life, Wooster Arts Jazz Festival and The
BioHio Research and Development Center Board. He earned his
undergraduate degree from Grove City College and has served there
as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship focusing on Banking and
Risk Management. Founded in 1999, First Security's community bank
subsidiary, FSGBank, has 31 full-service banking offices along the
interstate corridors of eastern and middle Tennessee and northern
Georgia. In Dalton, Georgia, FSGBank operates under the name of
Dalton Whitfield Bank; along the Interstate 40 corridor in
Tennessee, FSGBank operates under the name of Jackson Bank Trust.
FSGBank provides retail and commercial banking services, trust and
investment management, mortgage banking, financial planning and
Internet banking services (www.FSGBank.com).