JOHN CORBETT

CEO & DIRECTOR, SOUTHSTATE CORP., WINTER HAVEN

Headquartered in Winter Haven, SouthState Corp. (NYSE: SSB) is a publicly-traded financial services company. SouthState Bank, its nationally chartered bank subsidiary, provides consumer, commercial, mortgage and wealth management solutions to more than 1.5 million customers throughout Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Georgia, Colorado, Alabama and Virginia. The company was formed in a $3-billion merger of a South Carolina bank, SouthState and CenterState Bank, which Corbett had co-founded. Corbett, who was born in Miami, started his career in banking as a teller at First Union Bank in Haines City, where he was mentored by Ernie Pinner, area president for Polk County. In 1999, the two started a holding company that brought together a group of banks in Central Florida as CenterState. SouthState Corp. is the largest bank headquartered in Florida and one of just a handful to execute a billion-dollar-plus transaction last year with its $2-billion acquisition of Texas-based Independent Bank.

EDUCATION: Bob Jones University (BS)