By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 18, 2021 | Bartow Morgan Jr. has always been around banking, as has his family before him. While he enjoys running a bank, for him re-organizing a bank is even better. Along with other investors, he recently led a group acquiring Georgia Banking Company, founded in 1998.
The new ownership group raised $180 million in new capital, and plans to have five offices in Metro Atlanta before the year’s end. Two will be in Gwinnett, and others in North Fulton, Marietta and in Buckhead, near Piedmont Hospital, plus the original Griffin location. Earlier this year, Georgia Banking Company was ranked as one of the nation’s best-performing consumer and mortgage bankers by the Independent Community Bankers Association.
CEO Morgan says: “Elliott Miller has done an extraordinary job building one of the finest community banks in metro Atlanta. As our local economy continues to recover from the pandemic and begins a new growth phase, we plan to expand Georgia Banking Company’s presence in commercial banking and add more services to help owners of mid-size businesses grow.”
Morgan wants to position his new operation long range as a major community bank more personal than the megabanks. “There are now 19 banks in Atlanta in the category of between $100 million and $2 billion. We want to be the best in this group, and grow even more.”
Morgan
Heading the two Gwinnett branches will be Kevin Jones in Lawrenceville, formerly with BrandBank. He will be in a new building at the intersection of Hurricane Shoals and Collins Hills Roads , the corridor to Georgia Gwinnett College. At the Duluth office, at 6340 Sugarloaf Parkway, Wanda Weegar will be the branch manager.
Currently Georgia Banking Company has assets of $635 million, which Morgan hopes to hit $1 billion by the end of 2021. He’s recruited key community bankers to bring this about. They include:
- Richard Fairey, president and COO, was formerly president of BrandBank;
- Rob Cochran, CFO, was formerly CFO of BrandBank;
- David Black, chief risk officer, was formerly chief risk officer at Cadence Bank;
- Henry Dickerson, chief commercial officer, was formerly chief lending officer at BrandBank;
- Monroe Thrower, currently with GBC, as director of client relations;
- Tyler White, formerly with UCBI, will run the community banking group. (His father is Glenn White, long-time Gwinnett banker.)
- Jennifer Bridwell, former local banker, to be the Gwinnett market president.
- Margaret Whieldon, formerly with BrandBank, to be head of marketing.
Georgia Banking Company had 70 employees when the Morgan team bought the bank. By recruiting for the long run, the bank now has 155 employees, and anticipates topping out at around 200. “As we grow, we’ll probably never be more than 300 employees,” Morgan says, though that could be several years away.
Morgan has a unique banking history in Georgia. His great, great grandfather, E.M. Brand, founded BrandBank in Gwinnett County in 1905, making Morgan the fifth-generation family member in the banking business. BrandBank was sold to Renasant Corporation in 2018.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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