Ben Navarro

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Ben Navarro
Born
Benjamin W. Navarro

1962 or 1963 (age 60–61)[1]
Williamstown, Massachusetts, US
EducationUniversity of Rhode Island
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder and CEO, Sherman Financial Group
SpouseKelly Navarro
Children4, including Emma Navarro
ParentFrank Navarro

Benjamin W. Navarro (born 1962 or 1963) is an American businessman, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sherman Financial Group, LLC, which owns Credit One Bank.

Early life

He is one of eight children of Frank Navarro, a college football coach who posed for the Norman Rockwell painting The Recruit.[2][3] He was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, when his father was football coach at Williams College.[4] He is of Italian descent through his father.[5]

He grew up in

Chariho, Rhode Island.[6] He lived in Princeton, New Jersey and graduated from Princeton High School, when his father was coaching the Princeton University football team.[4]

Navarro earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Rhode Island.[1]

Career

Navarro worked for Goldman Sachs for three years, before joining Citigroup in 1988, rising to vice president and co-head of mortgage sales and trading.[1]

He left Citigroup in 1997, and in 1998 founded Sherman Financial Group, a global diversified investment services company.[1] In 2005, Sherman bought a small bank and renamed it Credit One Bank.[7]

Credit One Bank, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a technology and data-driven financial services company focused on distressed or otherwise subprime borrowers. Credit One is one of the top 10 largest Visa credit card issuers in the United States with over 12 million cardholders across the country.[8] In 2018, Credit One was named the "Philanthropic Business of the Year - Private" by Vegas Inc. for its philanthropic efforts in Affordable Housing & Homelessness, Employment Services, and Financial Education.[9] J.D. Power's credit card satisfaction survey reported that Credit One received a customer satisfaction score of 74%.[10] While some reviewers have cited a lack of transparency, in 2022, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as a part of their Community Reinvestment Act evaluations of national banks, awarded Credit One the status of "outstanding", a score that was awarded to only three of the 29 banks evaluated.[11][12]

In 2021, Navarro founded Beemok Hospitality Collection, a hospitality company consisting of hotel, restaurant, and entertainment properties throughout the Southeast. The collection originated in October 2021 with the acquisition of their flagship property, the Charleston Place - the largest hotel in Charleston at 434 rooms.[13] Other notable properties in the collection include The Cooper, a 225-room luxury hotel being developed along downtown Charleston’s waterfront; The Riviera Theater, a registered historic landmark Art Deco theater in downtown Charleston; and Hotel Domestique, a luxury hotel in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina.[13]

In 2022, Navarro bought the Western & Southern Open, a joint men's and women's tennis tournament on the ATP and WTA tour.[14]

Sports interests

Navarro owns the Live To Play Tennis Club in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which has hosted three USTA national junior tennis championships, and six International Tennis Federation women's pro circuit tournaments.[15][16]

In 2018, he was a bidder for the Carolina Panthers NFL sports franchise. He ultimately lost to David Tepper.[2]

In September 2018, he bought Charleston Tennis LLC, owners of the Charleston Open women's tennis event, through his company Beemok Sports LLC.[15]

In 2022, Navarro funded extensive renovations to Credit One Stadium, a 20-year-old city-owned facility, as a gift to the City of Charleston.[17] The newly-renovated stadium debuted on April 2, 2022, for the 50th annual Credit One Charleston Open, the largest women's only tennis event in North America.[17]

Also in 2022, Navarro's Beemok Sports bought the rights to the Western & Southern Open. The event features men’s and women’s singles. In 2022, 19 of the top 20 players in the world competed in the Western & Southern Open, which is one of nine tennis events in the world designated as a top-tier tournament for both male and female players.[18]

Personal life

He is married to Kelly Navarro, they have four children and live in Charleston, South Carolina.[2][15]

His daughters, Emma and Meggie Navarro, are tennis players. Emma was a collegiate tennis player at the University of Virginia. She has a career high WTA singles ranking of No. 20, achieved on March 18, 2024, and won the NCAA division 1 women's singles title on May 28, 2021 as a freshman.[19][20] Meggie is committed to play collegiately at UVA.[21]

Philanthropy

Navarro's philanthropic ventures are focused on education and mental wellness. In 2008, he founded Meeting Street Schools, a South Carolina-based network of one private and three public elementary and middle schools serving an entirely under-resourced demographic.[5] Meeting Street Schools were founded upon the belief that all children deserve an excellent education regardless of their geographic or socioeconomic circumstances and now serve over 1,800 students.[22]

In December 2020, Navarro announced the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund wherein he pledged to supplement the cost of higher education for any Charleston County high school students who also qualified for the Pell grant and the State's LIFE scholarship, ensuring college opportunities for hundreds of South Carolina high school graduates each year.[23][24] Since inception, the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund has expanded to an additional 10 South Carolina counties and has awarded $20 million in scholarship dollars to over 500 students.[25] In 2023, the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund announced its aim to expand the initiative to all 46 South Carolina counties which would impact over 2,000 students and amount to $42 million in scholarship dollars.[25]

In 2020, Navarro, in partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina, founded Modern Minds, a new type of mental wellness center that uses holistic health strategies to help adults living with anxiety or depression.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Benjamin W. Navarro: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c Newton, David (April 12, 2018). "Potential Panthers owner Navarro is a low-profile billionaire". ESPN. Archived from the original on May 7, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  3. ^ Igoe, Stephen (February 16, 2018). "Getting to know Panthers owner candidate Ben Navarro". 247Sports. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Person, Joseph; Peralta, Katherine; Rothacker, Rick (March 16, 2018). "Billionaire's row: A deep look at the potential bidders for the Carolina Panthers". WBTV. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Hartsell, Jeff (October 20, 2018). "Meet Ben Navarro. He bid for NFL team, owns Volvo Car Open and is changing schools". The Post and Courier. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  6. ^ "Ben Navarro Bio - Sherman Financial Group". Sherman Financial Group. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  7. ^ "Community Reinvestment Act Performance Evaluation" (PDF). Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  8. ^ "Corporate Fact Sheet - Credit One Bank" (PDF). Credit One Bank. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  9. ^ "About Credit One Bank". Credit One Bank. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  10. ^ "2021 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study". J.D. Power. August 19, 2021. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  11. ^ "OCC Releases CRA Evaluations for 29 National Banks and Federal Savings Associations". Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. June 1, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  12. ^ "Credit One Bank | Better Business Bureau® Profile". Better Business Bureau. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Williams, Emily (January 8, 2022). "Charleston Place owner share first details about 'multi-million-dollar' renovations". The Post and Courier. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  14. ^ Hartsell, Jeff (August 12, 2022). "Charleston's Ben Navarro buys Cincinnati pro tennis tournament". The Post and Courier. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c Beck, James (September 19, 2018). "Charleston billionaire Ben Navarro buys Volvo Car Open women's tennis event". The Post and Courier. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  16. ^ "Home - LTP Tournaments". LTP. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  17. ^ a b "The Renovation". Credit One Stadium. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  18. ^ "Western and Southern Open sold by USTA to Beemok Capital". August 15, 2022.
  19. ^ "Emma Navarro". Women's Tennis Association. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  20. ^ "Emma Navarro". Virginia Women's Tennis. August 27, 2020. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  21. ^ "5 star recruit Meggie Navarro (Emma's sister) commits to UVA (tweet)". Virginia Tennis Board. July 31, 2021. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  22. ^ "Our Schools". Meeting Street Schools. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  23. ^ Hicks, Brian (December 16, 2020). "Ben Navarro to give $20K a year to Charleston high school grads to help pay for college". The Post and Courier. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  24. ^ "Editorial: Navarros' gift could be life-changing, for our entire community". The Post and Courier. December 17, 2020. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  25. ^ a b Coe, Kenya (July 27, 2023). "Meeting Street fund to expand college tuition help to all 46 SC counties". The Post and Courier. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  26. ^ Sausser, Lauren (September 21, 2020). "SC businessman Ben Navarro and MUSC launch new approach to mental health treatment". The Post and Courier. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
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