Jackson W. Moore

Jackson W. Moore is an American attorney and retired Executive Chairman of Regions Financial Corporation.

Early Career

Jackson W. Moore was born in Alabama in 1949. In 1966, at the age of seventeen, Moore enrolled at the University of Alabama where he received his Bachelor's degree in banking and finance in 1970. While in college, Moore met Betty Wilson, daughter of Holiday Inn founder, Kemmons Wilson, on a blind date. He and Betty were married before Moore began law school at Vanderbilt University. When he graduated three years later, they moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where Moore accepted a position as a mergers and acquisitions attorney. He remained with the firm until 1986, when he resigned to join Union Planters Bank's board of directors.

In 1989, Moore became president of the bank’s holding company and Chief Operations Officer of Union Planters Bank. Moore succeeded Benjamin Rawlins as Union Planters' CEO when Rawlins died in September, 2000. As CEO, Moore took the helm of the largest bank in Tennessee, but under Rawlins' leadership, Union Planters' profitability had declined largely due to over-expansion. Moore closed over two hundred of the bank’s under-performing branches, eliminated unnecessary salaries and expenditures, and streamlined operations. Union Planters’ stock price increased by sixty percent and its net income by twenty-nine percent in the first two years of Moore’s leadership. [Jackson Moore Announces Retirement, BNET, Business Wire, November, 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_Nov_6/ai_n27435497]

Regions & AmSouth

In January, 2004, Regions Financial Corporation and Union Planters announced plans for a merger that created the twelfth largest bank holding company in the United States and one of the largest banks in the Southeast. [Regions Bank, History, http://www.regions.com] The $5.9 billion transaction created an expanded Regions Bank with five million customers and over fifty-six billion dollars in deposits. After one hundred thirty years, the Union Planters’ name was abandoned in favor of Regions though the Union Planters logo was retained for two years. Regions counted 1,400 branches across fifteen states, and it was the largest bank in Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. Moore was named chief executive of the bank and relocated with his family to its new headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. ["Regions, Union Planters banks merge," Atlanta Business Chronicle, 23 January 2004.]

Moore suffered a stroke in 2005 but remained Regions' chief executive. In October, 2006, Moore oversaw Regions' merger with AmSouth Bancorporation. ["Federal Reserve approved Regions, AmSouth merger," Nashville Business Journal, 23 October 2006.] Upon approval by the Federal Reserve and completion of the merger, the expanded Regions became one of the ten largest bank holding companies in the United States, with over $140 billion in assets, two thousand branches located in sixteen states, and thirty-seven thousand employees. Moore was named Executive Chairman of Regions Bank, but AmSouth's C. Dowd Ritter became CEO of Regions. ["Regions completes second phase of AmSouth integration," Memphis Business Journal, 31 October 2007.]

Executive Compensation & Retirement

Moore announced his retirement from Regions effective December 31, 2007. At fifty-eight years old, Moore stated he was entering the "next phase" of his life. Moore, with wife Betty, moved back to Memphis, where he planned to focus on his civic and charitable work and golfing. Moore continues to serve on the Board of Trustees for Vanderbilt University. He continues his support of the Boy Scouts of America, himself a recipient of the Eagle Scout Award. ["Moore to retire from Regions," Memphis Business Journal, 6 November 2007.] The Birmingham Business Journal reported in March, 2007 that Moore was paid Regions Bank over twenty-nine million dollars in 2006. The compensation package Moore received included a base salary of $951,391 and stock awards of over two million dollars, and bonuses of $2.5 million. He was also paid a retirement package of $9.4 million, accrued while CEO of Union Planters Bank. Added perks included a company car, personal use of the company jet, membership dues paid by the company of nineteen thousand dollars and payment of nearly $2 million in life insurance premiums. [Birmingham Business Journal, March 19, 2007, http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2007/03/19/daily6.html?jst=m_ln_hl&surround=lfn]

References Cited