As Ameris Bancorp completed its acquisition Monday of Atlanta-based Fidelity Southern Corp., it said a former Fidelity executive will become CEO of the merged company.
H. Palmer Proctor, former president of Fidelity, was named CEO of Ameris, which has its executive offices in Jacksonville.
When the merger was announced in December, Ameris said Dennis Zember would remain as CEO of the company. However, the company said Monday that Zember resigned “to attend to family and personal matters.”
As the companies announced in December, former Fidelity CEO James Miller was appointed executive chairman of the merged company.
“We appreciate Dennis Zember’s many contributions to bringing our two organizations together and are confident that Palmer Proctor is more than ready to step into his new role as CEO of the combined entity,” Miller said in a news release.
With the merger, Ameris Bank has 176 branches in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, including 62 acquired from Fidelity (which is not related to Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc.). The bank has about $16.4 billion in assets and $13.8 billion in deposits.
