Founder and CEO of Trustar Bank Shaza Andersen to speak at Winter Graduation 2021

Shaza Andersen, a George Mason University alumna and founder and CEO of Trustar Bank, will be the featured speaker at Mason’s Winter Graduation this month.

Graduation ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 16, at EagleBank Arena on the Fairfax Campus.

Andersen, BA Area Studies ’89, founded Trustar, the first community bank to be chartered in Virginia in more than 10 years when it opened in 2019. She is the former vice chair of the board of Sandy Spring Bank and prior to that was founder and CEO of WashingtonFirst Bank.

Andersen, who serves on the Mason School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council, is one of 18 members nationally on the FDIC Advisory Committee on Community Banking. In 2010, then-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed Anderson to Virginia’s Treasury Board.

Twice named a Top Banker by SmartCEO Magazine, Andersen also has been named one of the Top 100 Powerful Women by Washingtonian. The Washington Business Journal has twice listed her among both its Power 100 and 50 Fastest Growing Companies, as well as among its Women Who Mean Business and Most Admired CEO lists.

Andersen founded the Trustar Youth Foundation (formerly the WashingtonFirst Youth Founda­­tion), a local not-for-profit organization dedicated to children’s causes.