Past Presidents

Alex Downing was born in 1966 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as the youngest of the five children of Dero and Harriet Downing. His father, Dero Downing, was President of WKU for ten years beginning in 1969 and following his resignation in 1979, became President of the College Heights Foundation where he served for eighteen years.

Downing is a 1988 graduate of Western Kentucky University with a degree in accounting.

Prior to his return to the Hill in the 90s, he worked for Deloitte and Touche in Nashville, Tennessee, and for Baird, Kurtz, and Dobson in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as a certified public accountant.

Downing took the reins of the College Heights Foundation from his father in 1999 after serving as the CHF treasurer for the previous two years. During his tenure with the College Heights Foundation, Downing championed efforts to revise the investment policy for the Foundation and clearly defined the role of the CHF to be the primary beneficiary of scholarships benefiting the University. Under his leadership, the CHF endowment grew to more than $40 million in assets. After seventeen years, Downing left the Foundation at the end of 2012 to become Chief Operating Officer of Franklin Bank & Trust Co. In 2013, Downing was named President of Franklin Bank and Trust.

Downing and his wife, Kelly, reside in Bowling Green with their three children: Kathryn, Will, and John.

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