Former President Bill Clinton and leaders from of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation welcomed Darrin Williams, Speaker Pro-Tem of the Arkansas General Assembly, and Dr. Glendell Jones, Jr., President of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, as the respective CEO and Governing Board Chair of the nation’s leading rural development financial institution, Southern Bancorp, Inc. The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation hosted the event.
President Clinton’s message, sent from New York, described how Southern is fulfilling the vision that he and then the First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Clinton, along with Rob Walton, Muhammad Yunus, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and others had when they founded Southern Bancorp in 1986 to help generate long-lasting and catalytic investments in rural communities. Attendees also viewed a short video about Southern Bancorp featuring some of its founders, customers and partners. (To view both videos, visit https://banksouthern.com/mission/history.)
Cory Anderson and Dr. Sherece West-Scantlebury of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Mr. William Buster of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation also congratulated the two for continuing and strengthening Southern’s mission to invest in rural communities and empower the individuals and businesses there to transform those communities for the better. Both foundations are significant shareholders and supporters of Southern. (To view photos from the event, visithttps://banksouthern.com/mission/photos.)
“The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation has been part of Southern Bancorp’s journey since the beginning,” said Dr. West-Scantlebury. “And the addition of this new, vibrant leadership makes us greatly anticipate the road ahead. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Southern Bancorp well into the future.”
Williams, an attorney and three-term member of the Arkansas General Assembly where he currently serves as Speaker Pro-Tem, accepted the position of CEO earlier in the year after previously serving as a
