Samford University Honors Regions' Grayson Hall

Samford University Honors Regions' Grayson Hall

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Samford University Honors Regions’ Grayson Hall with Mann Medal for Ethics, Leadership

Hall: Doing what is right has the power to drive positive behavior and build a stronger culture.

Grayson Hall, the President, Chairman and CEO of Regions Financial Corp., was honored Thursday morning as the 2016 recipient of Mann Medal in Ethics and Leadership from Samford University’s Brock School of Business.

Hall is the third recipient of the honor from Samford, a private institution located in the Birmingham suburb of Homewood, Ala.

“The Mann medal is awarded to national and international leaders whose contributions led to a just and ethical society,” said Drayton Nabers, the Director of the Mann Center and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice. Nabers was joined by Samford President Dr. Andrew Westmoreland and Samford Vice President for University Advancement Randy Pittman in introducing Hall.

Pittman cited Hall’s leadership at Regions, taking over in 2010 during the height of the Great Recession. Pittman told the audience that Regions has the best reputation among top U.S. banks, according to a recent survey from the advisory firm Reputation Institute and American Banker Magazine.

“Grayson, you have served family, customers and shareholders with honor,” Pittman said.

The ceremony was held in the Regions Community Resource Room on the fourth floor of Cooney Hall, home of the Brock School of Business.

Hall said he was honored to represent his team of 24,000 Regions associates across 16 states in the South, Midwest and Texas. He lauded the Mann Center’s emphasis on ethics and leadership for the next generation of business leaders.

He credited Regions’ resurgence to a single passion: To do what’s right.

“If we focus on doing the little things well, the big things take care of themselves,” Hall said.

He explained the concept of shared value, which focuses on what Regions can do to help customers and communities be successful. By doing so, he added, you positively impact reputation while strengthening the bottom line.

“Values like honesty, integrity, teamwork, accountability, performance and doing what is right have the power to drive positive behavior and a stronger culture,” Hall said. “So, when our behavior comes from a foundation of these values and beliefs, we get the right results. Put simply, the right values drive the right behaviors, which create the right results.”

The Mann Medal was accompanied by a proclamation from the Alabama state legislature commending Hall for the honor.