BANKING/FINANCE : Orange Banker Is Chosen to Head One of Oldest Business Schools in U.S.

Orange County banker Wayne F. Miller has become the national president of one of the oldest business schools in the nation, the American Institute of Banking.

Miller, president of Orange National Bank in Orange, is the first banker from Orange County to head the 88-year-old AIB.

AIB, once the largest adult education program in the nation, has had to change its focus as more of the nation’s bankers enter the industry with college degrees. Now, through 600 chapters and study groups, the institute offers short seminars on the latest regulations and products as well as basic semester-long courses for new bankers.

Still the largest industry-sponsored business school, AIB estimates that about 25% of the nation’s bankers, or about 350,000 bankers, enroll in its courses and take its seminars every year.

Miller, whose one-year term runs through next May, has been active in AIB activities since he helped found Orange National in 1979.

Another Orange County banker, Paige V. Simpson, president of Citizens Bank of Costa Mesa, served as national AIB president in 1964-65 but was working for a San Diego bank at the time.