A Vicksburg man has been appointed to the Mississippi Board of Education, said a release Friday from the governor’s office.

Howell “Hal” Gage was named to the post by Gov. Haley Barbour. As part of the nine-member panel, Gage will help direct K-12 public education in Mississippi. Gage was not available for comment Friday afternoon.

“Education is a top priority of my administration, and I’m proud to appoint capable, strong leaders like Hal to serve on the state’s foremost educational authority,” Barbour said in the statement. “Hal will be a great asset to the board, and I look forward to his good works in this capacity.”

Gage, a former president and vice president of the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees, has been chairman of RiverHills Bank since 2000. Before that, he was chairman of BancorpSouth’s Vicksburg advisory board, president and chairman of Merchants Bank, and vice president of Port Gibson Bank. He was also vice chairman of the Vicksburg-Warren Community Alliance and, in 1996, a member of the Mississippi Taskforce on Restructuring of the Minimum Education Program.

Gage is a member of River Region Medical Center’s Board of Trustees and is advisory director of the Hinds Community College Foundation and the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits. He is chairman of the Vicksburg Medical Foundation.

Gage has a bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master’s degree from Harvard University. He and his wife, Betsy, has three children — Nick, Maury, and Rosanna.