Johnny B. Moore (Photo by Florence M. Howard)

Johnny B. Moore, an academic standout and athlete from Melrose High School, recently added a new job to his resume: SunTrust Bank’s first African-American regional president and chief executive officer.

Moore, who has been with SunTrust (formerly National Bank of Commerce) for 17 years, has been executive vice-president of the highly successful commercial banking line of business since 2005.  
Melrose’s former high school principal, LaVaughn Bridges, said that he is not surprised that his 1984 graduate built a solid reputation in the business world and in the community.

“He was an excellent student, and his behavior was impeccable,” said Bridges, who is now a director for the Memphis City Schools Teaching and Learning Academy at 2485 Union, after serving in administration at Melrose for 37 years.

“Not only a good student but a very good athlete, he demonstrated that you could do both – academics and athletics,” said Bridges.  “I am not surprised of his accomplishments; he certainly prepared himself.”

Melrose grad Rochelle Stevens has known Moore since the second grade and was in the same graduating class.  “That’s beautiful. I’m not surprised.  Johnny was always a good student, polite and mature for his age,” said the U.S. Olympic gold medalist.  

Preparation

The son of working class parents – Johnny Sr. and Erma Moore, the veteran banker grew up in the Cherokee Heights neighborhood where he attended several elementary schools — Dunbar, Cherokee and Sharpe — and Sherwood Junior High before heading to Melrose.  

As a kid who was “a little nerdy”, he said he always did his homework but worked toward his goals – even back in school. He was a member of the Sherwood Band and didn’t become athletic until he came to Melrose, which he calls a melting pot of talent.

That melting pot and competitive spirit built character within.  There, he saw kids who had been stand-outs in junior high football quit in high school because they could no longer be the best. As he faced these new challenges, he developed new strengths.

The first practice, Moore said, involved weight-lifting, something he had never done.

“I saw all those studs (big kids) from all over town and I was weak as Kool-Aid,” he said, remembering the strain of 110 lbs. of weights while those around him bench-pressed 145 lbs. He said he strained himself so hard that the 10-minute walk from school to home took an hour, as he stopped at every driveway to rest and recover.

“That was a crucial point in my life.  I had to make a decision. (Tell myself) ‘I can’t do it’ or stick in the game,” recalled Moore, who eventually became team captain of the Golden Wildcats.  “The rest is history.”

Wearing jersey number 70, he was named Best Offensive Lineman in his junior year.  In his senior year, he injured his leg and missed half a year of school.  His chances of a football scholarship dashed, he nevertheless graduated ninth in his academic class.

Thanks to band and good grades, he was able to attend Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) on full scholarship.  “Rhodes really challenged me academically,” said Moore as he recalled yet another crucial turning point.

Determination in Action

Graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting in 1988, he passed the examination for certified public accountant (CPA) on his first try.

Moore said he studied and studied for the exam everywhere he went, even to college football games.  Although his friends laughed at him, he was determined to be among those from Accounting Professor Sue Legg’s intermediate class who passed all four parts of the CPA exam in one setting.  Using 500 index cards with one question and answer each, he studied for six months.

Sue Legg served as a mentor and added wings to his desire to join a Big Eight accounting firm with offices in Memphis.  Professor Legg went to each of the Big Eight firms and asked if they would give a good African American student the chance to earn a decent living?  

Two companies, Touche Ross Co. and Ernst & Young answered yes and granted Moore interviews.  Before joining NBC as community reinvestment (CRA) officer at the age of 25, he was an accountant for Ernst & Young for two years.

At every step of the way, Moore’s determination and hard work have drawn accolades from equal access to lending, investment and services afforded to low-income and African Americans during his time as CRA officer to his work in the commercial lending group.  To gain ground-up understanding of banking, Moore also served as a relationship manager, increasing his location’s portfolio from the smallest to the largest and most complex in the company.

Nine years ago, he became group manager for the Commercial Line of Business that includes metropolitan lending and asset-based lending, handling companies with sales volumes between $5,000,000 and $250,000,000.   Because of his successful track record, he was promoted to executive vice-president for the group in 2005.

Moore, 42, will head local SunTrust’s operation that includes 37 retail branches in Memphis and the Mid-South.  The current president and CEO, John Frazer is heading to Atlanta to take control of SunTrust’s Private Wealth Management Line of Business for the state of Georgia.

Moore said a lot of people, many mentors, including NBC’s John Evans helped him along the way.  He said mentors are people you can be honest with who are willing to be honest with you and tell you things that you need to know in order to be successful.

Pride and Humility

The motto for Melrose is “We serve with pride and humility.”   The husband of Merry Moore and father of two children, Johnny III “Trey”, 13, and daughter Madison, 8, Johnny Moore seem to have kept that motto close to his heart.

He commented to the local daily newspaper that being the first black president of SunTrust puts a lot of responsibility on you.  “Whenever you are the first, you want to be successful, to keep the door open for people coming behind you,” Moore told the Commercial Appeal after his promotion was announced last week.

Seventeen-year-old Courtney Boyd is one of those people coming behind Moore.   A Melrose linebacker and a junior, Boyd hadn’t heard that a former Melrose student would be the bank’s first black president but was pleased by the news.

“That’s good.  You hear so much negative news about Melrose.  It’s good to hear something positive,” Boyd said.