# Ben Navarro

Benjamin W. Navarro (born 1962 or 1963) is an American businessman, the founder and chief executive officer of Sherman Financial Group, LLC, one of the largest buyers of consumer debt in the United States, and the owner of Credit One Bank, a bank specializing in credit cards for borrowers with low credit scores. He now also has several investments in Charleston real estate and sports. As of July 2024, he has an estimated net worth of US$1.5 billion according to Forbes. His companies have been criticized for aggressive debt collection practices, while he has been credited for helping transform the once small and fragmented business of collecting credit card debt into a multibillion-dollar industry.

## Early life

Navarro was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, one of eight children of Frank Navarro, a college football coach for Williams College who posed for the Norman Rockwell painting The Recruit. He grew up in Westerly and Chariho, Rhode Island. He is of Italian descent; his grandparents arrived to the U.S. from Italy, entering via Ellis Island. He lived in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from Princeton High School, when his father was coaching the Princeton University football team.
Navarro earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Rhode Island in 1984. While in university, he created a "student VIP" card, which he sold to businesses.

## Career

Navarro started his career at Chemical Bank, where he worked for two years making loans to banks after completing a credit-training program. Navarro then worked for Goldman Sachs for three years, where he worked on whole loans and agency mortgage-backed securities. In 1988, he joined Citigroup, where he rose to vice president and co-head of mortgage sales and trading, in charge of residential mortgage purchases and securitizations.
He left Citigroup in 1997, and in 1998, he founded Sherman Financial Group. In 2005, Sherman acquired First National Bank of Marin and renamed it Credit One Bank, now a major credit card issuer focused on subprime borrowers.
In 2021, Navarro founded Beemok Hospitality Collection, a hospitality company consisting of hotel, restaurant, and entertainment properties in the Southeast. It acquired Charleston Place, the largest hotel in Charleston at 434 rooms, in October 2021.

## Sports investments

Navarro owns the Live To Play Tennis Club in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which has hosted three USTA national junior tennis championships, and six International Tennis Federation women's pro circuit tournaments.
In 2018, he was a bidder for the Carolina Panthers NFL sports franchise. He lost to David Tepper.
In September 2018, he acquired Charleston Tennis LLC, owners of the Charleston Open women's tennis event.
In 2022, Navarro's Beemok Sports bought the rights to the Cincinnati Open.

## Personal life

Ben Navarro is married to Kelly; they have four children and live in Charleston, South Carolina. Their daughter, Emma Navarro is a professional tennis player who currently plays on the WTA Tour.
In 2021, Ben Navarro contributed $500,000 to a political action committee (PAC) supporting Tim Scott. In 2023, he contributed $5 million to the PAC.

## Philanthropy

In 2008, Navarro founded Meeting Street Schools, a South Carolina-based network of one private and three public elementary and middle schools serving over 1,800 students of an under-resourced demographic.
In December 2020, Navarro announced the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund wherein he pledged to supplement the cost of higher education for any Charleston County high school students who also qualified for the Pell grant and the State's LIFE scholarship, ensuring college opportunities for hundreds of South Carolina high school graduates each year. Since inception, the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund has expanded to an additional 10 South Carolina counties and has awarded $20 million in scholarship dollars to over 500 students. In 2023, the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund announced its aim to expand the initiative to all 46 South Carolina counties which would reach over 2,000 students and amount to $42 million in scholarship dollars.
In 2020, in partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina, Navarro founded Modern Minds, a mental wellness center that uses holistic health strategies to help adults living with anxiety or depression.
In 2022, Navarro funded extensive renovations to Credit One Stadium, a 20-year-old city-owned facility, as a gift to the City of Charleston.