Industry: Banking/Finance

Raymond J. Harbert

  • November 20th, 2024

Raymond Harbert’s lifelong entrepreneurial pursuits began early, at age 15, when he founded Penbryn Hill Catering. Undeterred by his initial lack of a driver’s license, Harbert enlisted other drivers to travel to and from client houses, deliver food, and park guest automobiles at events. This tendency to energetically pursue opportunities, learning as he went, continued throughout his life. For instance, when he initially entered Auburn University as an engineering major, he did not plan to switch to business, pursuing interests in real estate and finance and eventually earning a bachelor’s in industrial management. And when he took his first job after graduation as a computer programmer, he did not anticipate that a few short years later, in 1990, at the tender age of 31, he would be promoted to president and CEO of Harbert Corporation, a multi-billion-dollar diversified conglomerate.

From a young age, Harbert had shown interest in investments and finance. He eagerly followed his father’s (John Harbert, the founder of Harbert Construction Company) investment stories at the dinner table, and once found, as a teenager, his father’s copy of Joseph Wechsberg’s The Merchant Bankers, which led to a fascination with 19th century merchant banks and trading houses: Rothschild, Warburg, Baring, Schroeder, and J.P. Morgan & Company. So after the sale, in 1993, of Harbert Construction Company, the original company started by his father 50 years before, Harbert launched Harbert Management Corporation, the first multi-alternative asset investment management firm in Alabama. The new company would manage all Harbert Corporation’s assets for a percentage fee, and Harbert Corporation, in turn, would provide a $3 million line of credit, secured by any eventual inheritance the younger Harbert might receive.

Naysayers warned that nothing like this had been yet attempted in Alabama, and indeed, that neither Harbert nor his small team had ever managed or worked for an investment firm. Harbert, however, who started as a caterer and then worked as a computer programmer, did not see why he could not be a successful investor, and was willing to bet his inheritance on it. After all, he believed in curiosity, and letting it drive lifelong learning. And possibly more importantly, he believed in persistence, often quoting the Benjamin Franklin proverb that “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” As his business partner Charles D. Miller put it, Harbert “had the courage to make tough decisions and chart a new course which ultimately led to the formation of Harbert Management Corporation.” In the end, despite some difficult years, including the successful weathering of 2008’s Great Recession, Harbert and Ben Franklin proved the naysayers wrong: Today, Harbert Management Corporation oversees ten different investment strategies from eight U.S. and four European offices with over $8 billion of assets under management.

Harbert serves on the boards and executive committees of the Robert Meyer Foundation, Children’s of Alabama, and Birmingham Business Alliance, and is chairman of the Newcomen Society of Alabama. He is also a trustee emeritus of Auburn University, where the college of business is named for him following a transformative gift in 2013. He previously served on the board of the Alabama Trust Fund and is a past member of Leadership Alabama. In 2006, Harbert was awarded the regional Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Financial Services, and he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2015. Friends describe Harbert as both a fierce negotiator in the boardroom and a committed mentor outside of it, encouraging interns, new employees, and children of friends to “find their passion” as he found his.

Raymond and Kathryn Harbert are active philanthropists, having made significant gifts both in time and capital to numerous organizations including Auburn University, Red Mountain Theatre, Children’s of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and United Way of Central Alabama, where they were awarded the United Way Tocqueville Society Award in 2018.

The Harberts have three children and nine grandchildren and live in Birmingham, Alabama.

Thomas A. Harris

  • November 20th, 2024

Thomas Harris is a retired investment banker and entrepreneur who has founded several successful ventures. After graduating from Auburn University in 1971 with a business degree, Harris worked for First Alabama Bancshares, now Regions, as head of national accounts and business development.

In 1987 he became founder and president of Merchant Capital, a leading investment banking firm based in Montgomery, with offices throughout the Southeast. The firm has managed thousands of bond issues financing governmental entities, education, infrastructure, and economic development projects supporting and enhancing growth throughout Alabama. Under Harris’ leadership, Merchant Capital was named the number one investment bank in Alabama by issue volume for over 20 straight years by Thomson Reuters. Merchant Capital was acquired by Stifel Nicolaus Financial Corporation in 2014, and since then, Stifel has become the number one ranked investment banker of municipal bonds in the U.S. for the last 10 years.

In 2021, Harris founded Birmingham Recovery Center and Longleaf Wellness and Recovery Centers, which provides treatment for substance use and mental health disorders with four facilities across Alabama. “We want to make high-quality mental health and substance use treatment options more accessible for the people of Alabama because one death caused by alcohol or drug addiction is one too many,” Harris said in a 2023 interview. In 2023 he partnered in launching YHN Media Group, LLC, which owns several Alabama-based media outlets, including 256 Today News, Yellowhammer News, Soul Grown, and YHN Radio Network.

A native Alabamian who grew up in the Black Belt region, so named for its rich, dark soil, Harris remembers quail hunting as a boy, when the birds were everywhere. “You didn’t need a dog,” he told Buckmasters in a 2022 video interview. “You just needed to start walking.” When cattle farming began to drive out indigenous wildlife, it awakened a conservationist impulse in Harris. He saw the potential to reclaim some of the Black Belt land, starting with Gusto, his own 1800-acre preserve in Lowndes County. “You can turn a cattle property into a wildlife preserve,” he said. “It just takes some time.” Harris used best practices to remove invasive grasses like bermuda, fescue, and bahia, releasing the warm-season native grasses, and in turn, restoring the grasslands to its natural beauty.

In 2009, to further conservation and drive revenue in the economically depressed Black Belt region, Harris founded and now serves as president of Alabama Black Belt Adventures, a state-funded nonprofit organization committed to promoting outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities in the 23 counties of the Alabama Black Belt region. He was recently named to the national board of directors of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, and in 2019, was named Alabama Wildlife Governor’s Conservationist of the Year. Harris serves on numerous boards, including the Alabama Wildlife Federation, the Alabama Forest Land Trust, and Junior Achievement of Alabama. He is also the founding sponsor of the Wetumpka Wildlife Art Festival.

Harris and his wife, Cindy, reside in Lowndes County and have four children and seven grandchildren.

Claude B. Nielsen

  • November 20th, 2024

Claude Nielsen is the former CEO and chairman of the board of Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED, Inc. After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Sewanee: The University of the South, an MBA from the University of Virginia, and a brief Birmingham banking career, Nielsen joined Coca-Cola UNITED in 1979. He held a variety of operational and managerial positions in the company until he was named CEO in 1991 and later chairman of the board of directors in 2003. Under Nielsen’s leadership, Coca-Cola UNITED more than tripled the size and scope of the company in terms of revenues, geography, number of associates, and facilities. Birmingham-based Coca-Cola UNITED is among the largest bottlers and distributors of Coca-Cola products in the U.S. With over $4 billion in annual revenues, it is also one of the largest privately held companies in Alabama. Nielsen retired as CEO in 2016 and as chairman in 2023.

Over the course of his career, Nielsen was often asked if he knew the secret Coca-Cola formula. “I can answer that question with a simple two letter word,” he said in an address to the Newcomen Society of Alabama in 2017. “No.”

But that’s not entirely true. According to a nomination letter by current Coca-Cola UNITED President and CEO Michael A. Suco, while Nielsen may not know the secret CocaCola formula, he knows Coca-Cola UNITED’s secret ingredients. “As one of the architects of the U.S. Coca-Cola system as it stands today,” Suco wrote of Nielsen, “his incredible system knowledge and commitment to our associates, consumers, customers and communities are foundational to our success. No one believes in and lives our purpose and values more than Claude. He has always valued our associates and our brands as the ‘secret ingredients’ to our success.”

Upon his nomination to the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame in 2022, Nielsen told The Over the Mountain Journal, “Any success I’ve enjoyed as a business leader must be shared with the thousands of associates within the Coca-Cola UNITED family who made leading this great enterprise a real privilege over the years.”

Today, Coca-Cola UNITED has more than 10,000 associates located in more than 50 facilities across six southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee). The company’s operations consist of state-of-the-art sales and distribution centers, along with eight manufacturing facilities serving more than 150,000 customers across their footprint. Historically significant franchises within the Coca-Cola UNITED family include Chattanooga, the world’s first Coca-Cola bottler; Atlanta, home of the worldwide Coca-Cola system; and Columbus, Georgia, development site of the original Coca-Cola formula.

Nielsen has served as a board member and chairman of the American Beverage Association, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, and The Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Association. He has devoted time and energy supporting community causes like the United Way of Central Alabama, the Birmingham Airport Authority Board, and the American Cancer Society. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Business Alliance.

Nielsen was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2016. In addition, he and his wife, Kate, were recognized by the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America in 2017 with the “Heart of an Eagle” award for their community service, and they were named Outstanding Civic Leaders by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2021.

The Nielsens have three children and nine grandchildren and reside in Birmingham.

Ronald G. Bruno

  • September 29th, 2022

Ronald G Bruno grew up in the grocery business. Starting at the age of 14, he worked as a bagger and cashier at his family’s grocery store chain, Bruno’s. Started by his uncle Joe and soon joined by Mr. Bruno’s father, Angelo and other uncles, Bruno’s began with a single store in Birmingham in 1932. In 1971, Bruno’s became a publicly-traded company, and grew to be one of the top-producing grocery chains in the Southeast, with more than 250 stores and sales approaching $3 billion.

After graduating from The University of Alabama with a bachelor’s in marketing in 1974, Bruno went back to work full-time for the family business as a category buyer. From there, he worked his way up through the ranks to become director of grocery merchandising, vice president of sales, and president. By 1985, he was COO, and in 1991, he became CEO of the company. This same year Bruno worked with his father to create the Bruno’s Classic, an annual golf tournament in Birmingham on the PGA Senior Tour.

But later in 1991, Bruno’s life was rocked by tragedy: a plane crash took the lives of his father and uncle, as well as five other top executives and two pilots. In the midst of grief, Bruno was appointed chairman and charged with bringing stability to the company. He also had to find a way to remain competitive during a time that included the popularization of stores like Walmart Supercenters, as well as rapidly changing technology.

Under Bruno’s leadership, the company adapted. Between 1991 and 1995, Bruno’s opened 15 new stores annually, expanding markets to Atlanta and Nashville, and claiming 50 percent of the Birmingham market share. In 1995, after being approached by KKR with an interest in purchasing the company, Bruno’s sold for $1.2 billion, at that time the largest sale in Alabama history. As a condition of the sale, the buyer had to continue the golf tournament, which was now renamed the Bruno’s Memorial Classic. The event continues to this day under new sponsorship. Now called the Regions Charity Classic, the tournament has donated more than $20 million to charity since its inception.

After the sale of Bruno’s, he founded Bruno Capital Management in 1995, and continues to serve as President to this day. The same year, with partner Gene Hallman, Bruno again leveraged his love for sports to create the Bruno Event Team, which began with the management of a single event–the Memorial Classic–and grew to be one of the largest dedicated sports event management companies in the US. It has hosted golf events including more than 20 USGA national championships as well as multiple PGA tour and LPGA tour events. In addition to golf, Bruno Event Team operates several other divisions, including Zoom Motorsports, College Gameday, and a full-service catering and concessions division, Bruno Hospitality. Bruno was inducted into the Birmingham Golf Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

During his career, Bruno has served on the board of directors at Bruno’s, Inc., Russell Athletic Corporation, Books-A-Million, and Southtrust Bank. A committed philanthropist, he has also supported numerous civic organizations, including the United Way Tocqueville Society, the St. Vincent’s Foundation and The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet and the Culverhouse College of Business Board of Visitors. The Angelo Bruno Business Library, which was named for his late father and services the research needs of Culverhouse students, was funded and is still supported by Bruno and his family.

Bruno married Lee Ann Bruno in 1982. They have one son, Ronald Gregory Bruno, Jr.

Alexis M. Herman

  • September 29th, 2022

The Honorable Alexis Herman has made her mark as one of the most accomplished women to ever emerge from Alabama. A social worker, politician, and entrepreneur, Herman now works as chair and CEO of New Ventures, LLC, a corporate consulting company, and serves on the boards of directors for several major companies. She also chairs the Diversity Advisory Board for the Toyota Motor Company.

Born in Mobile in 1947 to a schoolteacher mother and an entrepreneur/politician father, Herman saw the effects of Jim Crow firsthand. Her parents, who were devout Catholics, sent her to parochial schools that were still segregated at the time. As a girl, Herman witnessed the impact of segregation on her community, and this sparked a passion in her for social justice and activism. As a sophomore in high school, she questioned the archdiocese’s practice of excluding Black students from full participation in religious pageants and placing them at the rear of religious gatherings. This resulted in her suspension from school. However, she was readmitted when Black parents protested. More importantly, the ultimate result was the desegregation of the Mobile Parochial School System the following year.

After earning a degree in sociology from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1969, Herman devoted herself to social work, returning to Mobile to help desegregate public schools. She began her career as a social worker helping young men gain admittance to apprenticeships in the Pascagoula, Mississippi shipyard. Because of her passion and success in placing the first minority males in apprenticeship jobs, she was asked to move to Atlanta, GA to spearhead a similar effort. This effort established a ten-city program to recruit and place women of color into professional and managerial jobs in private industry. She helped place the first women of color into professional and technical jobs in companies that included General Motors, Delta Airlines, and Coca-Cola. This work gained her national recognition, and in 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed her, at age 29, to be the youngest director of the Women’s Bureau in the history of the U. S. Department of Labor.

At the end of the Carter administration in 1981, Sec. Herman founded A. M. Herman & Associates, a consulting firm that led to significant diversity and inclusion work with a number of companies, including Proctor & Gamble and AT&T. She remained a high-profile political figure and was eventually called to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. After the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1992, she was appointed as the first African American woman Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. In 1997, she again made history when she was sworn in as the first African American to be appointed and confirmed as Secretary of the U. S. Department of Labor.

During her tenure as Labor Secretary, unemployment reached a thirty-year low. Sec. Herman garnered praise for her efforts to institute effective child labor standards, her deft handling of the UPS worker’s strike of 1997, and her advocacy to increase the minimum wage. Her public service has supported five presidents of the United States, both Democrat and Republican.

Sec. Herman has been awarded more than 30 honorary doctorates and is an inductee into both the Minority Business Hall of Fame and the National Women’s History Project. Her non-profit work includes service on the boards of the National Urban League and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a former trustee for her alma mater, Xavier University, a current trustee of the Toyota Technological Institute at the University of Chicago, is on the board of the Bush-Clinton Presidential Leadership Scholars initiative, and chairs the Dorothy I. Height Educational Foundation, and the Advisory Board of her alma mater, Heart of Mary, in Mobile.

In 2000, Secretary Herman married the late Charles L. Franklin, a successful family physician in McLean, VA.

Grayson Hall

  • September 29th, 2022

Grayson Hall is the Birmingham-based retired chairman and CEO of Regions Financial Corporation, the state of Alabama’s only Fortune 500 company. He retired from Regions in 2018 after a 38-year career, which started when he joined its predecessor AmSouth Bancorporation as a management trainee. Over time, he served in roles of increasing responsibility and was named president and CEO in 2010, and in 2013, was named chairman. No matter his role, Grayson never lost his focus on the people and communities Regions serves.

Hall’s tenure as CEO began as Regions and its peers across the banking industry were navigating the impacts of the Great Recession. His leadership and vision helped Regions emerge stronger. Hall championed a set of strong core values, a culture built around teamwork and service, and a deliberate focus on creating shared value for customers, communities, associates and shareholders. The company went from reporting a loss in 2010 to posting strong profits in the years before Hall retired. Regions Bank is now a regional powerhouse with a branch network reaching 15 states and specialty capabilities serving clients nationwide. At the time of Hall’s retirement, it had a $7.6 billion impact
on Alabama’s economy. As of July 2022, the company had a market value of approximately $17 billion; it remains Alabama’s only Fortune 500 company.

Hall is on the board of Vulcan Materials, Great Southern Woods Holdings Inc., and Alabama Power. He has also given his time to a variety of philanthropic and community-focused organizations including the Newcomen Society of Alabama, Birmingham Business Alliance, and Children’s of Alabama. He is also a member of The University of Alabama’s President’s Cabinet and the Culverhouse College of Business’s Board of Visitors.

Hall earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Sewanee, the University of the South and his MBA from The University of Alabama.

He married the former Susan Stringer in 1982 and together they have three children: Laura Hall Money (Scott), John Hall (Lauren), and Anna Hall Johnson (Daniel) and six grandchildren.

Frank A. Plummer

  • October 26th, 2021

Frank A. Plummer spent only thirty-four of his seventy-five years of life in Alabama, but he left an indelible mark on the state’s economic future. He was the man who helped change the face of banking in Alabama through for­mation of the first registered multi-bank holding company in the state-First Alabama Bancshares, lnc.-officially sanctioned in 1971 by the Federal Reserve Board of Washington.

The company began with three banks-First National of Montgomery, First National of Huntsville, and Exchange Security of Birming­ham. Under Frank Plummer’s guidance as Chairman of the Board and CEO from 1971 until his retirement on December 31, 1983, the company grew from a three bank holding company with assets of $576 million to a $3 billion organization with 24 banks and 5 non-banking subsidiaries.

Frank A. Plummer, the youngest child of Charles and Nettie Dwight Plummer, was born on June 18, 1912, in the small town of Richland, New York, near the Canadian border. As Frank Plummer related in an address to the Newcomen Society in 1983, his father (an entrepreneur in the best tradition of the Newcomen Society) died when the young boy was in elementary school. His mother, a young widow with tremendous responsibilities, delegated the moral and social areas of his training to his sister and the areas, such as baseball, basketball, trapping, and shooting to his brother.

While attending school, young Frank also worked in a grocery store which his father had acquired-bagging groceries and running to the local bank for change. Said Frank Plummer in 1983, “It didn’t take long for even a nine-year­old boy to discover that the local banker did less work than any man in town. My career. was selected.”

Though Frank Plummer often joked about his choice of career being associated with little work, his life belies his statement.

After graduation from high school, he worked his way through Syracuse University where he earned an undergraduate degree in finance and a master’s degree in political science.

The young man began his banking career in 1936 with Marine Midland Bank in Cortland, NY, in a clerk’s position – listed one step above the maintenance engineer (janitor) in the bank’s annual report. In Cortland, Frank Plummer met his beloved wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Higgins. In later years, Frank Plummer, with his puckish sense of humor, said that Betsy could always refute any claim he made to “starting at the bottom” in his banking career.

In 1940, he answered his country’s call by joining the infantry. Serving in the Pacific area of combat, he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of the Marine Bank & Trust Company of Tampa, FL.

In 1953, the Plummers moved to Montgomery, AL, where he became the Executive Vice President and Director of The First National Bank of Montgomery (which became the First Alabama Bank of Montgomery).

During the next five years, he became known for his high ethical standards and for his forward-thinking and entrepreneurial acumen. This “New York Yankee” found ready acceptance in the Deep South because he was the epitome of a gentleman-a gentle and courtly, kind, gracious man who worked diligently for the good of his profession and the community.

In 1958, Frank Plummer became the President of Birmingham Trust National Bank and was promoted to Chairman and Director in 1961. In 1964, he returned to Montgomery as President of the First National Bank of Montgomery. He was named Chairman of the Board and President in 1969.

In the early 1970′ s, Frank Plummer (represent­ing First National of Montgomery) began negotiation with First National of Huntsville and Exchange Security of Birmingham with the ob­jective of establishing a wider pool of resources for economic growth in the state. The legislation prohibited branch banking which would permit banks to marshal their financial resources when money was tight.

The first application for a registered holding company, filed with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, was turned down. However, opposition to the new concept in banking was subsequently overcome, and First Alabama Bancshares, Inc. received official sanction from the Federal Reserve Board in Washington on June 13, 1971. The holding company became a key to progress in Alabama, opening the door to greener pastures for the people of the state through ac­cess to money and job opportunities.

Frank Plummer has been called a “banker’s banker.” A graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Rutgers University, he also served as an instructor and member of the Board of Regents there and as a faculty member of the Southwestern School of Banking at Southern Methodist University.

He was a director of the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and a director and member of the Executive Commit­tee of the Association of Registered Bank Holding Companies.

Frank Plummer did not fit the stereotype of a banker. He had his own style. In all seasons, he wore an English Hornberg tipped at a rakish angle over his brow and dressed impeccably like a sophisticated man-of-the-world. “Mr. P,” as many employees called him, added a personal touch to the employer-employee relationship. He knew most employees by name and always ex­pressed interest in them and their work.

Debonair Frank Plummer was also known as a “workhorse” in the local and state civic arena.

For example, he served as Director and President of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce; Director of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce; and a director of the Alabama Power Company and of the Maytag Company of Newton, Iowa. He worked as Chairman of the Advisory Board and Director of the Montgom­ery Salvation Army and chairman of the Men of Montgomery.

Firmly committed to education, he served as a member of the advisory boards of Auburn University at Montgomery; the University of Alabama Medical Center; and Jackson Hospital Foundation. He was also a member of The Board of Visitors of Berry College and of The Board of Governors of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges. He was a director of the Southern Research Foundation and of Alabama Bankers Association Educational Foundation.

For his many accomplishments and contributions, Frank Plummer was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Huntingdon College, Montgomery, in 1972.

Frank Plummer died in Montgomery on Oc­tober 3, 1987, with his beloved wife Betsy and old friends standing by his side.

Banking had been his life and what he had done to develop banking was what he had enjoyed most. But Frank Plummer also loved people.

This successful, sophisticated executive was one who would stand at the door of the bank to welcome customers with apples at Christmastime.

Perhaps, these are some of the reasons that those who were privileged to know him will cherish the memory.

Sources of biographical information: An address by Frank A. Plummer to the Newcomen Society of the United States, in Bir­mingham, September 15, 1983 (published in April 1984); Alison L. Large, “Frank Plummer dies; pioneered state multi-bank holding firms, “The Birmingham News, October 5, 1987, p. 2A; The Latest Word, First Alabama Bank’s Monthly Publication, · October 31, 1987; “Notable Banker dies at age 75,” Birmingham Post Herald, October 5, 1987, p. C6; Starr Smith, “A banker’s banker: Debonair Frank Plummer, “The Montgomery Independent, October 15, 1987, p.7.

John Snow Jemison, Jr.

  • October 26th, 2021

John Snow Jemison, Jr., who founded Jemison Investment Co., Inc., in 1949, was known in Birmingham business circles as a “deal maker”- in the best sense of the term. He was admired by associates for getting to the essence of a question or problem quickly. He had the unique ability to develop a high trust and confidence level with all parties in a transaction, and no one’s trust or confidence was ever misplaced.

He was also known as a compassionate, loving, and caring person who expended much of his time and resources in improving the quality of life in the Birmingham area.

John Snow Jemison, Jr., was born in Birmingham on March 5, 1908. As the son of John and Margaret (Pockman) Jemison, he grew up in a family that had long been active in the business and civic life of the city and state.

After completing his primary and secondary education in the Birmingham public schools and the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, he earned a degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina. After his graduation in 1931, he obtained a position with the Bank of Manhattan (now Chase Manhattan Bank) in New York. At night he continued his education by taking courses in advanced accounting, securities analysis, and economics at the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration.

In 1940, he left the Bank of Manhattan (where he had become Assistant Cashier in charge of the bank’s Southeastern business) to join Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York, one of the nation’s largest underwriters of industrial securities. During World War II, he served with the Navy in the South Pacific for three years. After his discharge with the rank of Commander in 1945, he resumed his association with Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York.

John Jemison returned to his hometown in 1947 as a resident partner of Marx & Co. (investment bankers) of Birmingham and New York City. The partner­ ship was dissolved in 1955 when his partner was invited to become president of Paribas Corporation in New York. At that time, John Jemison activated Jemison Investment Co., Inc., which he had organized as a small side investment firm in 1949.

John Jemison could be described as Birmingham’s first venture capitalist. He has been called a financial wizard because he knew how to handle money, how to handle debt, and how to handle investments.

Jemison Investment Co., Inc., became a diversified holding company with interests in nested steel drums, lumber products, building material, slurry and dredge pump manufacturing, magazine publishing, and real estate. John Jemison described this privately owned firm as a “small conglomerate.” Jemison Investment Co., Inc. acquired a number of subsidiaries and became affiliated with several other companies. John Jemison became chairman of the board of each of the acquired companies, but all day-to­ day operations were handled by the management of the companies.

John Jemison served as President and Treasurer of Jemison Investment Co., Inc. from 1955 to 1983 when he became Chairman, Treasurer, and Director – positions he held until his death.

“Work hard and have fun doing it,” seems to have been his motto. He served as an officer and/or director of numerous public and private companies throughout the United States. These included: General Housewares Corp. of Stam­ ford, CT; P. M. Holding Corp. of San Diego, CA; L. Farber Company of Worcester, Mass.; American Heritage Life Insurance of Jacksonville, FL; Kershaw Manufacturing of Montgomery, AL; Birmingham Cable Communications, Inc., EBSCO Industries, Inc., Golden Enterprises, Inc., and Allied Products Company of Birmingham, to name a few.

He was also a Director of the Bank for Savings and Trusts from 1956 until its merger with the predecessor of SouthTrust Corporation in 1963. He served on the Board of Directors of SouthTrust until 1980 when he was elected a Director Emeritus.

While working as a financial executive, John Jemison was also working for the community. He was deeply involved in community affairs. He was a member of the Rotary Club and served as its president for one term. He served as a director of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce and the Metropolitan Development Board. He served as chairman of the Trade Mart Committee.

He was a Trustee of the Birmingham Symphony Association and the Eye Foundation Hospital. He was on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Birmingham Opera Association.

Always a supporter of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he was an honorary member of the President’s Council. He was one of the major donors of the first UAB Capital Campaign, and in 1986 he endowed a Visiting Professorship of Humanities chair through his $500,000 contribution. He was also a board member of the Medical and Education Foundation and of the Health Services Foundation at UAB.

A founding member of both the advisory board and the foundation board of St. Vincent’s Hospital, he was a major contributor to the hospital’s Main and West Wings.

John Jemison’s many-faceted contributions to community life were recognized when he was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1981 and by Birmingham-Southern College in 1987. On May 16, 1988, eighty-year-old John S.

Jemison, Jr. was killed when his car struck a bridge abutment in Birmingham.

As stated in the May 18, 1988, Birmingham News, “John S. Jemison, Jr., was a builder and benefactor of Birmingham. His tragic death… leaves us a little poorer… In so many ways, Mr. Jemison was a  leading citizen. He will be mourned and missed throughout the community.”

Biographical information provided by Jemison Investment Co., Inc.

Frank McCorkle Moody

  • October 26th, 2021

Frank McCorkle Moody has said that “a bank is nothing but a shadow of its administration.” During his fifty years with First National Bank of Tuskaloosa (now AmSouth Bank of Tuskaloosa), he set an example of excellence through his leadership in Alabama Banking; through his community service; and through the financial support of educational, cultural, and other worthy causes in the community.

This model citizen, as he has been called, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on September 25, 1915, the son of Frank Maxwell and Sarah (McCorkle) Moody. He received his elementary education in public schools and his secondary education at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He then entered The University of Alabama and graduated with a B.A. degree in Economics in 1937. (He later did post-graduate work at the Finance School, Duke University, and in the Graduate School of Banking, Rutgers University).

After graduation from The University of Alabama, Frank Moody decided to follow in the footsteps of his forebears and pursue a career in banking at the First National Bank of Tuskaloosa (FNB). His great-grandfather (Judge Washington Moody) had established FNB in 1871; his grandfather, Frank Sims Moody, had led the bank for forty years; his father, Frank Maxwell Moody, was in 1937 the leading executive.

Frank McCorkle Moody would become the fourth member of the family to lead the First National Bank. But, he would climb to the top in an old-fashioned way. His first job in 1937 was in the bank’s proof department.

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Frank Moody joined the U.S. Army Air Force and served until 1945 when he was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain.

The young veteran re­turned to Tuscaloosa where he became an assistant cashier at FNB. By 1949, he had become executive vice-president. By 1956, he was made president and CEO. In 1970, he became both CEO and Board Chair­ man, positions he held until he retired in 1987. Upon his retirement, he was named Chairman Emeritus of AmSouth Bank of Tuskaloosa, and still serves in that capacity. Frank Moody has said that investments in time and money are part of a “two-way street, … what helps community growth helps banks Communities that don’t

have aggressive banks don’t do much.” A bank must be “a catalyst and a leader.”

First National Bank has been a catalyst for growth since 1871 when Frank Moody’s great­ grandfather along with eight prominent citizens formed the bank. The bank’s credit was largely responsible for helping Tuscaloosa begin reconstruction. Under the leadership of Frank Moody’s grandfather and father, FNB continued to be a catalyst for growth in the West Alabama area as “a friend of the farmer.” When Frank McCorkle Moody became the fourth Moody to head FNB, the focus changed to commercial activity; and the bank became the leading bank in West Alabama, with at least ten branch banks. In the 1980s, with increasing competition in the banking industry and with powerful statewide banks in every community, Frank Moody felt that FNB’s potential for growth was decreasing. Thus, it was decided that the bank be sold to AmSouth Bancorporation. In 1987 Frank Moody oversaw the transition of Tuscaloosa’s strongest hometown bank, First National Bank of Tuskaloosa, to AmSouth Bank of Tuskaloosa.

During his years at First National Bank of Tuskaloosa, Frank Moody always stressed the importance of service and leadership. He personally set the example for the bank.

Frank Moody served in various leadership positions in the Alabama Bankers Association as well as the American Bankers Association. He also served as a member of the advisory board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Birmingham. For many years, he was a director of the Alabama Power Company, and a director and partner with R. L. Zeigler Co., and Creative Displays, Inc.

He has given his time to the community as president and member of the board of the Chamber of Commerce. As chair of the Chamber’s Aviation Committee, he spearheaded the paving of the runways at Tuscaloosa’s airport. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of Druid City Hospital (now DCH Regional Medical Center) and on the Tuscaloosa Housing Authority Board and the Tuscaloosa Development Board. For twenty-five years he was a board member, and also served as a chairman, of the Alabama State Mental Health Authority.

He has been president and chairman of the Tuscaloosa United Fund Drive; an active member of the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America and also of the vestry of Christ Episcopal Church. He is a member of the University Club of New York City.

At his alma mater, Frank Moody has served as a member of the President’s Cabinet and the Board of Visitors of the College of Commerce and Business Administration. At Stillman College, he has served on the Board of Trustees and the executive committee.

During Frank Moody’s tenure at FNB, the bank established an employee welfare fund to encourage giving to educational, cultural, and other worthy causes. The resulting contributions, combined with money donated by the bank, had totaled over $3 million when Frank Moody retired.

The Moody family’s interest in the arts led to the construction of two facilities on The University of Alabama campus. Frank Moody, two sisters, and FNB contributed substantially toward the construction of a music building. Named the Frank Moody Music Building, it honors not only Frank McCorkle Moody but also his father and grandfather, also named Frank Moody.

And another UA facility, the Moody Gallery of Art, has been dedicated to honor his Mother (Sarah McCorkle Moody), a staunch supporter of the arts.

For his leadership and service, Frank McCorkle Moody has often been recognized. For example, in 1991, he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. His name was added to the list of other prominent Alabamians whose contributions, in a variety of areas, have greatly enriched Tuscaloosa, West Alabama, and the state.

In 1992, he and his wife Gloria were the recipients of the Frances S. Summersell Award and they were selected to ODK (leadership honorary) at his alma mater.

In 1986, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Stillman College; and in 1979, an honorary LLD. from The University of Alabama.

Other honors include the Silver Beaver Award from the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts in 1987; the “Business and the Arts Award” presented by the Society for the Fine Arts (to Frank Moody in conjunction with FNB) in 1984; and a tribute – “To Tuscaloosa’s Finest,” placed in the Congressional Record by Richard Shelby on March 15, 1984.

In 1958, Frank Moody received the Tuscaloosa Citizen of the Year Award, and in 1957, he was named “Number One Boss” by the Business and Professional Women’s Association.

After Frank Moody announced that he would retire on June 30, 1987, the Tuscaloosa City Council proclaimed May 28 as Frank Moody Day. The Council’s resolution cited, among other things, Frank Moody’s leadership and “dedication to the economic growth and prosperity of the area and the meeting of humanitarian needs.”

The president pro-tern of the Council said that “rarely does one have an opportunity to see an individual who fits the mold of a model citizen… Most people know him as Frank Moody, but a lot of people call him ‘Mr. Tuscaloosa.'”

He and his wife, Gloria, are the parents of six children and five grandchildren.

Harry B. Brock, Jr.

  • October 26th, 2021

On March 2, 1964, when Harry B. Brock, Jr. and a group of his friends opened the first new bank in Birmingham in 18 years, no none could have predicted that this small beginning would change the structure of banking in Alabama and lay the foundation for Birmingham to become a major regional banking center.

The new bank was an instant success in making a profit the first year. Harry Brock has said that this early success of Central stemmed from the fact that he is as much a salesman as a banker. The bank’s motto was, “Ask for business.” Everybody at Central – from directors to employees – sold the bank and its services.

This “unabashed salesman,” as he has been called, spearheaded the multibank holding company concept in Alabama. In 1968, Harry Brock announced that he and a group of investors consisting almost entirely of his board of directors had gained voting control of the State National Bank of Alabama … the only bank in Alabama that enjoyed the right to operate branches out­side its home county … and planned to merge it into Central.

Almost all the banks in Alabama, including the ones in Birmingham, tried to stop the merger while the Alabama Bankers Association filed a bill in the legislature that would not only prevent merger across county lines but would prevent the creation of multibank holding companies.

Harry Brock worked almost singlehandedly to kill the bankers’ bill. His determination and perseverance prevailed and the bill that might have bankrupted him and fossilized banking in Alabama failed to come out of the banking committee of either house.

While Harry Brock battled in the courts and in the legislature, some of the plaintiffs began to form a holding company of their own. Brock’s vision for banking change in Alabama and his dream for Central came true, but another holding company was the first in Alabama by three months.

Harry Brock was instrumental in the passage of the statewide Bank Merger Bill in 1980, and in 1981 was finally able to merge his banks into one bank with branches throughout the state.

In 1987, Central Bancshares of the South became the first bank in Alabama to own a bank in another state and the first out-of-state bank to own a bank in Texas. Brock named the Texas operation Compass Bancshares of Texas. Today, the assets of the Compass Banks in Texas compose almost 25 percent of Central Bancshares’ assets.

Harry Brock retired as an active officer of the Central Bank family in 1991, on his 65th birthday. He remains on the boards of the bank and holding company and holds the honorary title of Founder Chairman. At the time of his retirement, Central Bancshares ranked 98th in assets, 60th in profits, and 19th in return on equity among the top 500 banks in the United States. During his last ten years as Chairman and CEO, his stockholders enjoyed a total rate of return of 1,281 percent, the highest of any major bank holding company in the Southeast.

Harry B. Brock, Jr. was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, on March 31, 1926 – the son of Harry Blackwell and Cornelia Macfarlane Brock. The family moved to Gadsden, Alabama when he was very young. In 1944, he graduated from Tennessee Military Institute and joined the U.S. Navy. He volunteered for submarine duty and served on three submarines.

Harry Brock graduated from The University of Alabama in 1949 with a B. S. degree in Commerce and Business Administration. He returned to Gadsden where he worked in the family oil business and as a car salesman. (That same year he married Jane Hollock of Birmingham and they have three children, Stanley M. (Skip), Barrett (Mrs. Richard M. Mackay) and Harry, III (Buck), and six grandchildren.) In 1953, he took a job with Socony Vacuum Oil Company in Rochester, New York.

In 1955, he accepted a job with Exchange Security Bank in Birmingham to organize its first business development department. He was Executive Vice President when he left in 1964 to become co-founder of Central Bank and Trust Company.

Harry Brock has long been a leader in the banking industry. In 1957 – only two years after entering the banking profession – he was the first recipient of the Alabama Outstanding Young Banker Award presented by the Alabama Bankers Association.

In 1973, when the legislature adjourned without passing the budget, he prevented a complete shutdown of state government by offering state employees interest-free loans to equal their salaries until the legislature could reconvene and restore financial order. All but three state employees accepted the offer.

In addition to his leadership role in banking, Brock has given unstintingly of his time, expertise, and financial resources to help make Birmingham, Jefferson County, and the State of Alabama a better place in which to live and work.

He has been a trustee of Samford University for 30 years and served four terms as Chairman. He is currently Chairman of Samford’s Sesquicentennial Campaign with a goal of $80 million. He is a Past President of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham and founded the Kiwanis Foundation during his term. As a certified instructor in the Dale Carnegie course for eight years, he helped hundreds of Alabamians achieve their personal goals. He is President of the Daniel Foundation of Alabama and the Brock Foundation. He is a trustee of Southern Research Institute, a member of the President’s Cabinet at The University of Alabama, and served as Chairman of the Challenge fund Division of the University’s Sesquicentennial Capital Campaign in 1980. The division exceeded its goal by 25 percent.

He was a member of the Young President’s Organization, an international group of business leaders who become President of their companies before the age of 40. He later served as President of the Chief Executives Organization, the YPO leadership graduate organization.

He was a charter member of the Metropolitan Development Board and served two terms as its President. He was also a member of Operation New Birmingham whose main purpose was to provide an avenue of communication between black and white communities and to improve race relations. He has served as Metro Chairman of the National Alliance of Businessmen, established by President Nixon to help find jobs for the hardcore unemployed and unemployed Veterans. He has served as President of the Diabetes Trust Fund and of the Governor’s Cost Control Survey. He served as co-chair of the Business Division of the Governor’s Task Force on Tax Reform.

Harry Brock has also given his time as a director or trustee of such worthy undertakings as Junior Achievement (serving on its National Board), the Jefferson County Community Chest, the Anti-Tuberculosis Association, the Jefferson County Society for Crippled Children, and the Supporters of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. He has, and continues to be, supportive of and involved in United Appeal; and has been active in many worthy projects of the Chamber of Commerce (including the development of the Civic Center).

For his professional and civic leadership as well as his many contributions to his community, Harry Brock was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor in 1983. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American History, and the Marquise Who’s Who in America.

According to a colleague, Harry Brock exhibits qualities that standard biographical data do not necessarily reflect. He has always been a fierce and formidable competitor who does not shrink from controversy. (Harry Brock’s leadership at Central Bank of the South and his involvement in the restructuring of banking in the state would support this assessment.) “He has been a leader and a motivator, and people have followed him because they wanted to,” said his colleague, and Harry Brock is “altogether larger than life.”

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