- Push-out Score determined
- After less than one year in the position
- Praise, thanks and good wishes for Zember
- Palmer Proctor taking over
(exechange) — Jacksonville, Florida, July 1, 2019 — Dennis Zember, chief executive of Ameris, leaves. As announced by Ameris Bancorp in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, July 1, 2019, Dennis J. Zember has left his post as Chief Executive Officer at the bank holding company after less than one year in the role, effective June 27, 2019.
Among the 3,000 largest publicly held companies incorporated in the U.S. based on market capitalization, the average tenure of the CEOs who departed over the past 12 months was 7.5 years, according to data compiled by exechange. Only 4 percent of the CEOs who departed over the past 12 months left their position within their first year. Around 12 percent left their position within two years, and 22 percent left their position within three years.
Dennis Zember’s duties as CEO were taken over by H.Palmer Proctor, a former Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank.
“Citing a need to attend to family and personal matters”
Dennis Zember’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. Ameris said: “The Company also announced today that Dennis J. Zember Jr. has resigned from his positions as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company, and as Chief Executive Officer and a director of Ameris Bank, citing a need to attend to family and personal matters.”
Precise information regarding Dennis Zember’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Resigned”
Ameris said: “On June 27, 2019, Dennis J. Zember Jr. resigned from his positions as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Ameris. On June 27, 2019, following such resignation, the Board of Directors of Ameris … appointed Andrew B. Cheney to serve as Ameris’s interim principal executive officer.”
Share price decline
The announcement follows a decline in Ameris Bancorp’s share price of 16 percent since July 2018.
In the position of CEO since 2018
Dennis J. Zember Jr. served as a director of the Company and as a director of the Bank since July 2018.
He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since July 2018 and as Chief Executive Officer of the Bank since January 2018.
Previously Zember served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company from January 2018 through June 2018, and as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Company and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ameris Bank, the Company’s wholly owned banking subsidiary (the “Bank”), from June 2016 through December 2017.
From February 2005 until June 2016, Zember served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of both the Company and the Bank.
Before joining the Company, Zember served as Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Flag Financial Corporation and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Flag Bank from January 2002 to February 2005, and as Vice President and Treasurer of Century South Banks, Inc. from August 1997 to May 2001.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to Ameris and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 27.2019 ($).