Kessel Drewry Stelling, Jr.

Kessel Stelling Jr.  – ARC Class of 1974 -- was born in 1956 to Kessel D. Stelling Sr., a longtime Comptroller for the City of Augusta, and his wife, Charity Bennett Stelling. While at ARC, he was in the top 5 % of his class, winning a certificate of merit that UGA and the Georgia Education Improvement Council awarded to students who met demanding criteria. In 1978, he graduated from University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and has been a strong supporter of UGA’s Terry School of Business since.

 

Kessel also earned a graduate degree in Banking at Louisiana State University. Stelling began his banking career in his hometown at the First Railroad and Banking Company in 1978.  Soon after, he was promoted to loan officer. He was senior vice president of First National Bank of Cobb County from 1985 to 1990, then Executive Vice President of the Chattahoochee Bank in Marietta from 1990 to 1994. After serving as Interim CEO of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce, in 1996 he and a business partner bought Cobb American Bank and renamed it Riverside Bank. He was chairman and CEO of the bank and Riverside Bancshares Inc. He began his career with Synovus in 2006 when the Bank of North Georgia (Synovus) purchased Riverside Bancshares.  He helped steer the integration of the two. He was promoted to Synovus Regional CEO for the Atlanta area in 2008. In 2012, he became Chairman of Synovus Financial Corporation. He has been the Chief Executive Officer since the fall of 2010.

 

Mr. Stelling’s business, civic, and professional activities are numerous. He has served as Chair of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the United Way of Cobb County, Chair of the Regional Business Coalition, and the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

 

He began his first term on the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia in 2008 and was re-appointed in 2015. He has been a member of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, the Cobb County Community Foundation, Wellstar Health Systems, the Development Authority of Cobb County and the Georgian Club. He has been a trustee of Kennesaw State University and a member of the Terry College on the UGA Advisory Committee. In 2018, Mr. Stelling became a curator of the Georgia Historical Society.

 

Other awards included being named Cobb County Citizen of the Year in 2003, the UGA Terry College Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2009 and one of Georgia Trend Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Georgians” in that same year.