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Phillip N. Baldwin
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Baldwin is President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Bancorp, a $600 million development bank holding company that operates three development banks and three non-profit organizations in Arkansas and Mississippi.
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Mr. Baldwin currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the United Way of America Board of Trustees - where he is chairman of the finance committee and treasurer, Arkansas Capital Corporation, Ouachita Baptist University, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, and the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.
In 2007, Mr. Baldwin was appointed by Governor Beebe to serve on the Governor’s Roundtable on Health Care. Also in 2007 he received the United States Small Business Administration District Directors Special Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership and was named Arkansas Economic Development Volunteer of the Year by the Economic Developers of Arkansas.
Mr. Baldwin has over 28 years of experience in banking, beginning his career in the banking services group of Ernst and Young. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Arkansas Society of Certified Public Accountants.
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Herman Davenport
Herman Davenport is President and CEO of the Davenport Group. He served as community affairs officer for the Levi Strauss Foundation, providing development funding to low-wealth communities and neighborhoods. Mr. Davenport, an advocate for economic development, serves on the board of the Rural Community Assistance Program. He joined Southern's Board in 1990. |
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John C. Edwards
John Edwards was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and spent much of his childhood in Lonoke County, Arkansas, where he was an Eagle Scout. He attended public schools in Arkansas, including the University of Central Arkansas, and the Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, obtaining his Juris Doctor degree in 1988.
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Edwards served as an aide to former United States Senator David Pryor, where he was responsible for working with agricultural related issues. In 1996, he was appointed Arkansas State Director of USDA Rural Development. USDA Rural Development is the lead federal agency providing funding for rural housing, businesses, and water systems. In 2001, he went into the private practice of law, and served as the Executive Director of the White River Irrigation District.
Edwards is a Colonel in the Arkansas Army National Guard and has been awarded the Bronze Star, the Humanitarian Service Ribbon, the Combat Action Badge, and his Paratrooper Wings. He served one year in Iraq.
In 2006, Edwards became a member of the firm of Anible & Edwards, a general law practice in Little Rock, Arkansas. Edwards has a keen interest in economic development and water related issues.
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LaVerne Feaster
LaVerne Feaster is a retired educator and administrator from the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Her current and past board appointments include the Arkansas Rice Depot, Florence Crittenden Home, the Arkansas Association of Children Under Six, the Arkansas Teen Suicide Prevention Commission, 4-H Foundation, and the Arkansas Repertory Theater. Mrs. Feaster joined Southern Financial Partners' board in 1991. |
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Dr. Bob Fisher
Bob Fisher is President of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to his appointment at Belmont in April 2000, he was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. He was Dean of the School of Business at Henderson State University for ten years. Dr. Fisher earned a B.S.B.A. from Henderson State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Memphis, and a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas.
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Dr. Fisher serves on the Board of Directors and is the past chair of the Greater Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Country Music Foundation, the Nashville Symphony, the PENCIL Foundation, the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, the Nashville Business Committee for the Arts, Cumberland Region Tomorrow, and Fifth Third Bank. He is an active member of the Rotary Club of Nashville, participates in Nashville’s Agenda, and is a 2001 graduate of Leadership Nashville. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Southern Financial Partners, a division of Southern Bancorp, Inc.
Dr. Fisher is co-author of Real Dream Teams, a book on team leadership, published by St. Lucie Press and has published numerous articles on management and leadership including articles that have appeared in the Personnel Journal and Personnel Administrator.
He has consulted with a wide variety of organizations on human resource and strategic planning issues including Kimberly Clark Corporation, Alltel, Arkla Gas, U.S. Department of Transportation, and others.
Dr. Fisher has served in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a Fulbright Scholar conducting research and consulting with the National Institute of Public Administration, and was a keynote speaker at the Arabian Society for Human Resource Management Conference in Bahrain.
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James Harrington
James Harrington is President of Harrington Construction. He is Chairman of the Board of Harrington Properties, Director of Elk Horn Bank and Trust Company, and is a board member of the National Association of Home Builders, National Council of Multi-Family Housing, Arkansas Home Builders Association, and the Clark County Home Builders Association. He joined Southern's board in 1990. |
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Dr. Glendell Jones, Jr.
Dr. Glendell Jones, Jr. is the Assistant to the President for Diversity Initiatives at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He formerly was an assistant professor of accounting at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and a business law professor at Arkansas State University. Dr. Jones is a former board member of Elk Horn Bank & Trust. He joined Southern's board in 2002. |
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Jacquelyn Williams McCray
Jacquelyn W. McCray, a native of Monticello, Arkansas was named Dean/Director
of the School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in July 1995. Under McCray=s leadership, the School has made significant strides in image enhancement, program and faculty expansion, resource development, and student recruitment and retention. The School has emerged as the University’s fastest growing academic unit having shown an enrollment increase of 40% during her tenure as Dean.
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Prior to her current appointment, McCray served in the following leadership positions at the University - Deputy Dean/Director, Associate Dean, and Assistant Administrator for 1890 Programs. Having served most of her professional career at UAPB, McCray came to administration from a faculty position in the Department of Human Sciences. For more than 20 years she conducted housing and community development research in Arkansas and the Southern Region. During this time she served as Chair of two Southern Region Housing Research Projects, conducted contract research for the Lower Mississippi Delta Commission, the Winthrop Rockefellow Foundation and the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.
Professionally, McCray is a long-time member of the American Association of Housing Educators having served on its Board of Directors (1982-85), Chair of the Research Section (1989-90), and National President (1991-92). She has been a member of the Research Advisory Committee for the Housing Assistance Council in Washington, DC and is widely published in major Housing, Family and Community Development Journals and has more than 50 referred publications to her honor. Though no longer engaged in housing research, McCray has given professional expertise in support of housing and community development initiatives through the Jefferson County Affiliate of Habitat for Humanity and the Pine Bluff Community Housing Resources Board.
McCray has served as Chair of the Association of 1890 Extension Administrators and as a member of the National Extension Committee on Organization and Policy. She is a member of Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society of Agriculture, Alpha Kappa Mu National Honor Society, and Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society for Family and Consumer Sciences. She is listed in Outstanding Young Women of America and International Who’s Who and is a recipient of the Arkansas Women of Achievement Award in Energy.
McCray earned the B.S. Degree from Arkansas AM&N College (now UAPB), the M.A. degree from Michigan State University and the Ph.D. degree from Florida State University. McCray has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from both UAPB and Florida State. She is one of 200 Centennial Laureate Scholars named by The College of Human Sciences at Florida State University during its recent Centennial Celebration. McCray is an active member of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and the Pine Bluff Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. She is married to Parnell McCray and they have an adult son, Michael.
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Walt Patterson
Walt Patterson is senior vice president of Affiliated Computer Services. He is the national board chair of Volunteers of America and the Electronic Fund Transfer Association. His current and past affiliations also include the National Council of State Human Service Administrators, the Arkansas State Job Training Coordinating Council, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Futures Advisory Committee. Mr. Patterson joined Southern Financial Partners' board in 1991. |
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Rodney Slater
Rodney Slater is a partner in the public policy practice group of Patton Boggs, LLP in Washington, D.C. Mr. Slater was unanimously confirmed as the nation's 13th Secretary of Transportation in 1997 and served as Secretary until the end of the Clinton Administration in January 2001. Mr. Slater held past positions as director of government relations at Arkansas State University and Secretary-Treasurer of the Arkansas Bar Association. Mr. Slater joined Southern's board in 2001. |
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Walter Smiley (Chairman)
Walter Smiley is President of Smiley Investment Company, a venture capital firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. Previously, he was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Systematics, Inc., a financial data processing software company that was ranked by Forbes magazine as among America's top 200 small companies before it was acquired by ALLTEL Corporation in 1990. Mr. Smiley joined Southern Bancorp’s board in 1986 and became Board Chairman in 1998. |
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Dorothy Stuck
Dorothy Stuck is a retired civic leader and business woman. Mrs. Stuck and her husband owned three eastern Arkansas newspapers for 20 years and she edited the Marked Tree Tribune. She served nine years as Director of the 5-state Southwestern Regional Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health Education and Welfare and was given its highest award, the Distinguished Service Award.
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She was a partner in Stuck and Snow Resultants, a management and publications firm, for fifteen years. She was a founder of The Wilowe Institute, a statewide, membership-based leadership development organization. She is co-author of the award winning biography, Roberta a Most Remarkable Fulbright. |
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Sherman Tate
Sherman Tate is vice president and general manager for operations of Alltel. Previously he served as vice president for Arkansas Distribution Operations at Arkla Gas. A former president of the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Tate serves on the boards of directors of Philander Smith, First Commercial Bank, St. Vincent Health System, and the United Negro College Fund and on the Pulaski County Facilities Board. Mr. Tate joined Southern Bancorp board in 2006. |
