A Changing of the Guard at BancorpSouth in Miss.

By Paul Davis April 03, 2014, 1:14 p.m. EDT 2 Min Read

Community banking

BancorpSouth Names New CEO

BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., will have a new chief executive for the first time in nearly 22 years, with James D. "Dan" Rollins 3rd succeeding Aubrey Patterson.

By Brian Browdie

November 26
Community banking

BancorpSouth's ex-CEO Carves Out His Post-Retirement Role

Aubrey Patterson keeps in touch with his successor and advises bankers to think twice before surpassing $10 billion in assets and earning more regulatory scrutiny.

By Paul Davis

March 7
M&A

BancorpSouth in Miss. to Buy Texas Bank for $211M

BancorpSouth (BXS) in Tupelo, Miss., is making to most out of its return to bank acquisitions.

By Paul Davis

January 22
M&A

BancorpSouth in Miss. Buying Ouachita in La. for $112M

BancorpSouth (BXS) in Tupelo, Miss., has agreed to buy Ouachita Bancshares in Monroe, La.

By Paul Davis

January 9

BancorpSouth (BXS), an active acquirer in the Gulf Coast region, is losing some familiar faces from the board and its management team while adding others.

Chairman Aubrey Patterson and two other directors will retire this month, the Tupelo, Miss., bank said in a recent regulatory filing. Meanwhile, another member of the board resigned in March, according to the filing.

Dan Rollins, who replaced Patterson as chief executive in November 2012, will succeed Patterson as chairman of the $13 billion-asset company after its April 23 annual meeting.

Two other directors James Kelley and Albert Clark will also retire after the annual meeting. Moreover, Kelley, 64, will retire as BancorpSouth's president and chief operating officer in August, the company said. Kelley has held his current posts since BancorpSouth's 2000 acquisition of First United Bancshares, where he was chairman, president and CEO.

The filing did not name a successor for Kelley. A BancorpSouth spokesman said it was premature to say when, or if, the company would hire a new president.

Clark, 70, runs a beverage distributor. He has been a BancorpSouth director since 2012 and a member of the bank's board since 1996.

A fourth director, Grace Clark, resigned from the board on March 20, the filing said. Grace Clark, 68, is a partner at Borrowed Thyme, a catering business. She joined BancorpSouth's board in 2012 and had been a bank director since 2008.

Her departure "is not the result of any disagreement with the company or the bank," the filing said. She is not related to Albert Clark, the spokesman said.

Thomas Turner, a businessman in Baton Rouge, La., joined BancorpSouth's board in December. The company also plans to add Donald Grobowsky, chairman, president and CEO of Central Community Corp. after it buys the Temple, Texas, company. BancorpSouth expects to complete that acquisition during the third quarter, the spokesman said.

Overall, the company's board will shrink to 15 directors, including Grobowsky.

BancorpSouth hired Rollins from Prosperity Bancshares (PB) in Houston. He has been cutting costs at the company and has agreed to buy two banks for a combined $323 million: Central Community and Ouachita Bancshares in Monroe, La.

"I have said jokingly that Dan is helping me learn how not to be CEO and I'm helping him learn to be CEO," Patterson said in a March 2013 interview. "As long as we have good will and the best interests of the company at heart, then we're going to help each other. We're prepared to get cranked up to a higher level of performance, and Dan's just the guy to do it."

Paul Davis