Benjamin W. Rawlins, Jr.

Benjamin Wade Rawlins, Jr. (March 15, 1938 – September 12, 2000) was the chief executive of Union Planters Bank for more than 16 years. Under his leadership, the bank grew from a Memphis bank with $2 billion in assets to a $34 billion financial services company operating in 12 states. 
Rawlins also served as chairman of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce and sat on various boards, including the Tennessee Banker’s Association, the Memphis branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Advisory Council of Fannie Mae, the Memphis Arts Council, and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. He was a member of the Chancellor’s Roundtable at the University of Tennessee, Memphis and was on the Board of Visitors at University of Memphis. 
==Education==
Rawlins attended Murfreesboro High School, graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1961, and completed a master's degree in business administration from Georgia State in 1969.
==Career==
===1962-1967: Genesco, Inc.===
In the 1960s, Rawlins served as administration manager for the retail division of Genesco in Nashville. Genesco was one of the nation’s largest clothing conglomerates at the time, with about 100 stores, including Henri Bendel, Tiffany, and Bonwit Teller, and nearly 50,000 employees from coast to coast. Rawlins had taught himself to program at a college job where he operated computers, in an era when computers were still huge, expensive, and not broadly accessible. His computer know-how led to an opportunity at Genesco to help develop the company’s computer systems for tracking inventory and forecasting sales. 
===1967-1974: First National Bank===
Rawlins moved to Atlanta in 1967 to enter the MBA program at Georgia State. He intended to return to Nashville and Genesco upon graduation, but the job he took while working on his master's degree turned into a career move. His computer background paid off again with an opportunity in the data processing department at First National Bank. By the time he graduated, he was data processing manager, and later became group vice president.
===1974-1982: Union Planters National Bank===
Rawlins moved back to Tennessee in 1974, hand-picked by the new president of Union Planters National Bank to help save the bank from looming disaster after decades of management problems. Rawlins was appointed executive vice president of the Tennessee Group, which included the bank’s retail, marketing, operations, automation, and credit divisions. In this role, Rawlins helped lead Union Planters’ transformation into the most technologically advanced bank in the region and returning the bank to profitability. In 1982, Rawlins resigned over differences in opinion about the bank’s new financial endeavors, including getting into the broker-dealer business.
===1982-1983: Greater American Corp.===
Rawlins served as president of Greater American Corp, a financial services company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
===1983-1984: Consultant===
Rawlins served as a consultant to financial institutions in Tennessee and elsewhere in the South.
===1984-2000: Union Planters National Bank and Union Planters Corp.===
In the fall of 1984, the Union Planters board summoned Rawlins back and named him chief executive officer, after letting his two immediate predecessors go. The bank was facing a year-end loss of $18.78 million, and dividends were suspended until the capital-to-asset ratio improved. Rawlins vowed to return the bank to traditional banking services and began writing off non-traditional operations and cutting overhead. Within a year, the bank posted an $11.2 million profit. With annual results improving, Rawlins was able to begin exploring opportunities for growth.
Seeking to establish a broader earnings base and a solid foundation for expansion, Rawlins launched a program to acquire high-margin community banks that would provide multiple, predictable sources of income. In 1986, the bank entered into agreements that would add $338 million in deposits to the bank’s balance sheets with the acquisition of four Tennessee banks: The Bank of Roane County in Harriman, Merchants State Bank in Middle Tennessee, First Citizens Bank of Hohenwald, and FirstBanc of Crossville. Union Planters closed the year with $19.1 million in profit.
In January 1987, dividends were reinstated. Although the bottom fell out of the bond market that year, earnings from the first acquisitions and continued gains in traditional commercial banking minimized the adverse effects for Union Planters. In 1988, the bank acquired two more Tennessee banks, Citizens Bank of Crossville and Pickett County Bank and Trust Company and ended the most profitable year in its history, with earnings at a record $25.6 million. In February 1989, Union Planters shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Rawlins extended Union Planters’ holdings into Mississippi in early 1989 with the acquisition of United Southern Corporation, a $345-million, multi-bank holding corporation that had grown out of the Bank of Clarksdale. The United Southern purchase was one of the first steps in what bank officials dubbed the “Delta Strategy,” which called for the purchase of community banks within 150 miles of Memphis and urban or suburban banks within 300 miles.
Other acquisitions in 1989 included Cumberland City Bank in Steward County, Tennessee, First National Bank of New Albany, Mississippi, Citizens Bank & Trust Company of Wartburg, Tennessee, and Steiner Bank in Birmingham, which marked the first entry of a Tennessee bank into Alabama. A deal was in the works that would extend Union Planters’ reach into Arkansas the next year, with the acquisition of the $421-million North Arkansas Bancshares.
The bank faced a setback in 1989, when the combination of some bad real estate loans and losses from a broker-dealer unit led to a $22 million loss. Rawlins took corrective action that produced marked improvements on the bank’s balance sheet over several quarters. He noted in the 1989 annual report that “Union Planters came out of the decade a much larger and stronger organization.” The bank now ranked fourth among the nation’s largest bank holding companies in safety and soundness, according to a study commissioned by U.S. Banker.
The bank posted an annual profit of $22.7 million in 1990 and $27.5 million in 1991. After spinning off the broker-dealer business altogether in 1991, Rawlins continued expansion of the bank’s holdings in 1992 with the acquisition of the $822-million Fidelity Bancshares in Nashville, the $585-million Metropolitan Federal Savings and Loan in Nashville, and the $90-million Bank of Commerce in Woodbury, Tennessee. 
The transformation in progress at Union Planters caught the attention of analysts like Kay Lister of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, who noted that the bank had "successfully re-engineered itself away from a company whose earnings were highly dependent on the fortunes of the broker/dealer subsidiary in favor of building a profitable community banking network across Tennessee and into the neighboring states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.” 
The pace of acquisition accelerated in 1993, with Union Planters purchasing 11 more Tennessee banks and adding approximately $1.5 billion in assets. Acquisitions included Bank of Tennessee in Morristown, SaveTrust Federal in Dyersburg, Security Trust Savings in Knoxville, First Federal Savings in Maryville, FirstState Bancshares in Somerville, Farmers Union Bank in Ripley, Garrett Bancshares in Goodlettsville, Erin Bank & Trust in Erin, Central State Bancorp in Lexington, First Financial Services in Brownsville, First Cumberland Bank in Madison, and the Knoxville offices of Bank of East Tennessee. The bank also acquired Hogue Holding Company in Weiner, Arkansas, and Mid-South Bancorp in Franklin, Kentucky. Annual earnings reached $63.1 million.
The bank’s outlook was bright according to analysts like Henry Coffey, Jr. of Bradford & Co., who commented that “Under Ben Rawlins ... Union Planters has established a history of financial discipline. . . Management has successfully built an earnings stream that should prove to be both highly predictable and profitable.” The first decade of Rawlins’ leadership had seen the bank’s assets grow from $1.9 billion to $6.7 billion, deposits increase from $1.4 billion to $5.7 billion, shareholder equity rise from $75 million to $513 million, and loan volume expand from $876 milion to $2.9 billion. Non-performing loans decreased from $60 million to $27 million, and the loan-loss reserve increased from $10 million to $80 million.
The second decade of the Rawlins administration began with four more acquisitions: Mid-South Bancorp in Franklin, Kentucky, First National Bancorp in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Anderson County Bank in Clinton, Tennessee, and First National Bank in Clinton, Arkansas.
In April 1994, Rawlins saw construction completed on his vision for the bank’s new headquarters building, a design that was “monumental in scale and timeless in design . . . [and] could have been mistaken for a Federal Reserve Bank or the Tennessee State Capitol.” Constructed on what was reportedly one of the most valuable pieces of undeveloped property in Shelby County, at one of the busiest intersections in the state, the new headquarters was built in Greek Revival style with a granite base and massive columned façade. “It stood out like a landmark amid the welter of sleek but faceless office complexes and corporate centers . . . Inside the main lobby, which soared up two stories in height, architectural features such as coffers, vaults, columns, pilasters, and an enormous chandelier suggested a grand banking hall dating from the mid-nineteenth century.” 
In July 1994, Rawlins entered into an agreement to acquire Grenada Sunburst System Corp., the third largest financial institution headquartered in Mississippi, in a $361-million deal that significantly expanded the bank's presence in Mississippi and gave it an entrace into the Louisiana market. 
Over the next few years, Rawlins continued “quietly building an empire,” wrote Aaron Elstein of American Banker in 1998, noting that Rawlins “shuns publicity” and “keeps a low profile as he oversees one of the country’s fastest growing banking companies.” At the time, Rawlins had completed more mergers than almost anyone in banking, according to SNL Securities, and Wall Street analysts speculated that the bank was setting itself up to sell as Rawlins went on buying up smaller banks. The acquisition of the $2.3 billion Magna Group of St. Louis in February 1998 strengthened the bank’s presence in Missouri and extended its reach into Iowa and Illinois, and the purchase of the $211 million Ambanc and California Federal Bank’s Florida branches in April 1998 deal expanded the bank’s Midwest presence and shored up its foothold in Florida. 
In September 2000, Rawlins suffered a fatal heart attack while exercising at his home. Jackson W. Moore, who replaced Rawlins as chairman and CEO of the bank and its holding company, credited Rawlins as the “single most important individual in UP’s growth.” During his 16 years at the helm of Union Planters, Rawlins helped it grow into the country's 30th largest bank, while building "a community banking empire that stretches from Houston to St. Louis to Miami.” 
==Personal life, and death==
Rawlins enjoyed reading history and biographies, playing chess, and cruising America’s waterways by boat with his family.
Rawlins married Alice, his wife of 34 years, in 1966. He died of a heart attack at the age of 62. At his death, he and his wife lived in the River Oaks area of Memphis, Tennessee. He had three grown children, and one grandson.
Category:1938 births
Category:Vanderbilt University alumni
Category:Georgia State University alumni
Category:Chief executive officers
Category:2000 deaths