Trevor Burgess

For the pseudonymous Trevor Burgess, see Elleston Trevor.
Trevor Burgess
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forFirst openly gay bank CEO
SpouseGary Hess
Children1

Trevor Burgess is an American entrepreneur. He was an investment banker and CEO of C1 Financial.[1] He is the founder of TRB Development and the president, majority shareholder and CEO of Neptune Flood Insurance.[2]

Early life

Burgess has been openly gay since his teenage years.[3] He graduated in 1994 from Dartmouth College.[4] He was a management consultant at Monitor Company, a Cambridge, Massachusetts firm, associated with Michael Porter.[5] Burgess spent ten years at Morgan Stanley as an investment banker in New York, Los Angeles and London, including "executing more than $50 billion in transactions for major clients, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, which he helped take public in 2006."[4] His last appointment was as a Managing Director in Global Capital Markets leading over 100 investment banking transactions such as the IPO for Chipotle.[6][5] He then went on to be a partner at Artesia Capital Management, a private equity firm with investments in Brazil and the U.S."[5]

Industry environment for LGBT workers

In 2012 the Human Rights Campaign noted it was still an issue to be LGBT in the workplace as there were no openly gay CEOs in the Fortune 1000 and "U.S. Companies can still legally fire a worker for being gay in 29 states, and many subtle biases remain in the workplace."[7] Former BP chief John Browne noted that homophobic corporate cultures and board of directors keep people in the closet with corporations level of conservativeness rising with the company's size.[7] Todd Sears, founder of an annual LGBT leadership summit for the finance industry noted it was common for executives to not come out until they retired, or even be outed when they died.[7] The 'Wall Street journal' reported in March 2014 that it was still common for LGBT workers to stay closeted.[8]

On becoming the first openly gay banking CEO, Burgess told CNBC, “If that can help the next generation of leaders come out and feel comfortable being authentic, like kids who are in college and considering careers in finance or being entrepreneurs, I’m really lucky.”[9]

Businesses

Burgess is the founder and CEO of the former C1 Bank, and its bank holding company, C1 Financial (NYSE: BNK). Burgess served as a director of C1 after acquiring control of C1's predecessor bank, Community Bank of Manatee, in December 2009.[10]

C1 Bank was a $1.7bn bank[11] focused on the needs of entrepreneurs, and had 31 offices throughout Florida. Burgess was named the 2014 American Banker Community Banker of the Year [12] and was recognized as the 2013 Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in the financial services category.[13] In 2014 SNL named C1 the 6th fastest growing bank[14] in the country over the prior five years. C1 Bank was acquired by Bank OZK in July 2016 generating a 47% return for its IPO investors in less than 24 months.[15][16]

After selling C1 Bank in 2016, Burgess formed TRB Development with his business partner, Jon Carlon. TRB Development is focused on "acquiring and developing residential home sites to deliver great value-priced, move-in-ready new homes."[17]

In 2018, Burgess purchased a controlling stake in Neptune Flood Insurance.[18] Burgess and co-founder Jim Albert offer residential and commercial flood insurance.[19] Neptune filed a patent for its Artificial Intelligence engine in 2019 for which it was awarded the Novarica Impact award for Data & Analytics.[20] Neptune has grown from 50 policies in January 2018 to over 35,000 in 2020. "It had $17 million in premium at the end of 2019, and Burgess projects $40 million to $50 million in premium, by the end of 2020 — even with the coronavirus-based business slowdown."[2] Neptune Flood Insurance was named to the CNBC Upstart 100 in 2018 of 100 promising start-ups to watch.[21] In August 2022, Neptune Insurance ranked 205 out of 5,000 on Inc. Magazine's fastest growing company list.[22]

In May 2023, Burgess's company Neptune Insurance sold a minority stake to private equity firms Bregal Sagemount and FTV Capital.[23]

Personal life

Trevor Burgess became the first openly gay CEO of a bank on the New York Stock Exchange when C1 Financial, which is based in St Petersburg, Florida, made a $44.7 million public offering in August 2014.[1][6][24] In the company's initial public offering filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission he disclosed that his husband, Gary Hess, held some shares thus confirming his sexuality in the disclosure.[3] Burgess and Hess have a daughter, Logan.[4][25]

He has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek's "Out on the Street" and in the book, "The G Quotient-Why Gay Executives are Excelling as Leaders."[5] In 2013 he won Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in Florida's financial services category.[4] In 2015 the Financial Times in conjunction with OUTstanding, named Mr. Burgess one of the leading global LGBT executives.[26] In 2016, NBC News named Trevor one of "11 Out Business Leaders You Should Know."[27] In 2019, OUTstanding and Yahoo! Finance listed Trevor as one of the top 100 global LGBT+ executive role models.[28]

Burgess and Hess are involved with multiple charities. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, they donated 30,000, masks to the city of St. Petersburg.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b McCormick, Joseph Patrick (15 August 2014). "Wall Street welcomes first openly gay bank CEO on New York Stock Exchange". Pink News. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Flood insurance firm grows 366%, hits $7M in sales | Business Observer". Business Observer. 2020-05-08. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  3. ^ a b Ivory, Danielle (15 August 2014). "A Gay Chief Makes History as His Bank Goes Public". New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d Kurpiela, Heidi. "Ask the Locals: Trevor Burgess of C1 Bank". CL Tampa Bay. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d "C1 Bank Trevor R. Burgess Chief Executive Officer". Equality Florida & the Equality Florida Institute. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  6. ^ a b Feintzeig, Rachel (13 August 2014). "Openly Gay CEO Sets Milestone as Bank Goes Public". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Kwoh, Leslie (24 July 2012). "A Silence Hangs Over Gay CEOs". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  8. ^ FEINTZEIG, Rachel (6 May 2014). "Why Gay Workers Decide to Stay in the Closet, Employers Are More Supportive Than Ever, but Some Workers Still Worry About Negative Perceptions". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  9. ^ Scipioni, Jade (8 June 2021). "Trevor Burgess, first openly gay CEO of public bank: 'Success is the best revenge'". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  10. ^ "See one bank | Business Observer". Business Observer. 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  11. ^ "Bank of the Ozarks to acquire C1 Financial for $402.5m". NS Banking. 2015-11-10. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  12. ^ Bank, C1. "C1 Bank CEO, Trevor Burgess, named American Banker's Community Banker of the Year". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2020-07-09.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ LLP, Ernst & Young (2013-06-14). "Ernst & Young Announces Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) 2013 Award Recipients in Florida". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  14. ^ "6th fastest growing bank". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  15. ^ "47% return". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  16. ^ "For CEO of C1 Bank, a bonanza payout from sale to Bank of the Ozarks". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  17. ^ "Local Entrepreneurs to Transform Medical Building into Trendy Office and Restaurant". St. Pete Rising. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  18. ^ "Burgess Returns to St. Pete with Disruptive InsurTech Enterprise". St Pete EDC. 2018-10-16. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  19. ^ Manning, Margie (2019-12-23). "Big changes ahead for St. Pete insure-tech Neptune Flood". St Pete Catalyst. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  20. ^ "Neptune Flood wins insurtech award". St Pete Catalyst. 2020-07-08. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  21. ^ staff, CNBC com (2018-10-09). "CNBC unveils its annual list of 100 promising start-ups to watch". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  22. ^ "Neptune Flood Incorporated is a 2022 Inc. 5000 honoree". Inc.com. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  23. ^ Ben-Hutta, Avi (2023-05-11). "Bregal Sagemount and FTV Capital invest in Neptune Flood". Coverager - Insurance news and insights. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  24. ^ Cohn, Emily (15 August 2014). "Meet The First Openly Gay CEO Of A Publicly Traded Bank". Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  25. ^ Stewart, James B. (2014-09-05). "Corner Closet Opens Up a Bit Wider". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  26. ^ "The 100 out and proud heroes of the business world who have risen above barriers to success". www.ft.com. 2014-10-08. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  27. ^ "11 Out Business Leaders You Should Know". NBC News. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  28. ^ "The OUTstanding Top 100 Role Model LGBT+ Executives 2019". finance.yahoo.com. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  29. ^ "Dear St. Pete, help bring 30,000 more free masks to the Sunshine City". I Love the Burg. 2020-06-15. Retrieved 2020-07-09.