Release Date: Monday, April 6, 2009

Bank of Atlanta CEO John W. Jackson to speak April 10 at Terry College leadership speaker series

ATHENS, Ga. — Bank of Atlanta President and CEO John W. Jackson, who has nearly three decades of experience in the community banking business, will present the final spring lecture of the Terry Leadership Speaker Series on Friday, April 10, at 10 a.m. in Room B-2 of the University of Georgia's Main Library.

Jackson's presentation, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Institute for Leadership Advancement at UGA's Terry College of Business.

Headquartered in Midtown, Bank of Atlanta opened its doors in 2006 and added a second bank branch last summer in Gwinnett County at Sugarloaf Centre. Bank of Atlanta offers a full range of commercial and personal banking services to its customers, and as of June 30, 2008, the bank's assets totaled $224 million.

Jackson has devoted his career to leadership in some of Atlanta's best-known middle-market banks. He spent 15 years with Bank South, specializing in retail banking, consumer, mortgage and commercial lending.

In 1991, Jackson moved to SouthTrust, where he managed an $800 million loan portfolio as the head of metropolitan banking, and in August 2004 he was appointed the Jacksonville, Fla., regional CEO to help prepare SouthTrust for its acquisition by Wachovia. In December 2004, Jackson joined Atlanta Bancorporation, the holding company for Bank of Atlanta. A 1976 graduate of the Terry College, Jackson joined the Terry Dean's Advisory Council this past year and has served on the Carter Center's Board of Councilors.

He is the fourth business leader to address students this school year through the expanded Terry Leadership Speaker Series. Jimmy Barge, an executive vice president at Viacom, and Lizanne Gottung, a senior vice president at Kimberly-Clark Corp., spoke last fall. And real estate developer Bo Means spoke in February.

The Institute for Leadership Advancement is a leadership development unit housed in the Terry College of Business. Its programs stress the importance of principled leadership based on core values and emphasize leadership as a collaborative process and not as a position. The institute's ultimate aim is to create a new class of leaders who are well trained and ready for responsibility, committed to stewardship, pursuers of excellence, characterized by integrity and defined by purpose.

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