RankingBanking 24 Digital (1) - Flipbook - Page 18
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Will Great
Southern’s Winning
Streak Last?
By Naomi Snyder
G
rowing up, Joe Turner’s dad didn’t
ing the bank in Springfield, Missouri. Luckily for
let on that he wanted him to take
both of them, the results were far from average.
over as CEO of Great Southern
For the last two years, the $6 billion Great
Bank one day, a role the father had
Southern Bancorp has outperformed most others
held since 1974. Joe thinks it was
as one of the top 25 U.S. banks in Bank Director’s
because William Turner wanted
RankingBanking study, which is sponsored by the
him to work hard.
public accounting, consulting and technology firm
At 6 foot 5 inches, Joe played
Crowe LLP. The ranking is compiled by Piper San-
football at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa,
dler & Co. using S&P Global Market Intelligence
and describes himself then as an “average” foot-
data on profitability, capital adequacy and asset
ball player. He became a CPA and started his own
quality, with a heavier weighting on profitability.
career as a lawyer away from his hometown, in
Great Southern has a long history of generating
Kansas City, Missouri. He got married there. Even-
returns for shareholders. Since its initial public of-
tually, William did ask his son to take the job lead-
fering in 1989, its stock price rose 8,039% versus
