CenterState Bank Appoints Chris Nichols as Chief Strategy Officer

WINTER HAVEN, Fla., June 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CenterState Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSFL) today announced that it has appointed Chris Nichols as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of CenterState Bank ("CenterState"). Chris was previously President and CEO of PCBB Capital Markets and co-author of the Banc Investment Daily. As CSO, Chris will play a key leadership role in developing CenterState's business strategy, identifying market opportunities and accelerating product innovation to support the Bank in executing against growth opportunities.

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Chris will help shape CenterState's long-term strategy, particularly in the areas of customer engagement, risk management, marketing, banking technology and the application of predictive analytics to both credit and profitability. In addition, Chris will partner with Brad Jones, Correspondent Division Manager, to bring the same products and services that Chris designs for CenterState to its network of over 600+ financial institutional customers.

"As CenterState continues to focus on risk management and helping its retail, business and correspondent bank customers grow profitability, Chris will play a key role," said John Corbett, CenterState Bank President and CEO.  "With his outstanding track record of success, innovation and vision in banking, I am very confident that Chris' pioneering approach to bank profitability, analytics, products, market segmentation and technology will bring a new level of insight and imagination to CenterState."

"The banking industry is going through metamorphic change and CenterState has proven that it has the ability to adapt in order to deliver franchise value to both its customers and its investors," said Chris. "CenterState is building one of the most admired, important and exciting brands in community banking and I couldn't be more humbled and energized about the opportunity to help accelerate the game-changing journey they have already begun."

Chris has more than 25 years of banking experience, is an active bank investor and an experienced small business owner, giving him a practical understanding of the complete banking value chain. In addition to managing PCBB Capital Markets, Chris sat on the executive and operating committees of Pacific Coast Bankers' Bank, a chartered commercial bank; helped found FinancialOxygen, a banking technology company; and held operating positions at the Bank of America Corporation, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Chris is active on several boards of directors, a frequent lecturer at banking conferences and writes regular columns for a variety of national banking trade publications. Chris holds a degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and holds FINRA certification including Series 7, 24, 53 and 63 licenses.

For more information, please contact Brad Jones at 888.411.1132 ([email protected])

or Chris Nichols at 925.202.8944 ([email protected]).

About CenterState Banks

CenterState Banks, Inc., headquartered in Davenport, Florida, is a bank holding company with one nationally chartered bank: CenterState Bank of Florida. Presently, the Company operates through 55 branches in eighteen counties throughout Central Florida, providing traditional deposit and lending products and services to its commercial and retail customers. The Company, through its Correspondent Division, also provides fixed income; loan sales services; hedging; foreign exchange; fed funds purchased products; safekeeping; bond accounting; asset/liability; strategic planning and consulting services to financial institutions located throughout the United States.

SOURCE CenterState Banks, Inc.