After 38 years in banking, Jim Terry applies his work ethic to leading the Hollingsworth Funds
Looking out the window of his fifth-floor office on Verdae Boulevard, Jim Terry can see new homes being built at Verdae and bustling businesses along Laurens Road. Roper Mountain is in the backdrop and the expansive views of the city are amazing.
It’s all part of a $290 million, 1,100-acre empire built by John Hollingsworth and now entrusted to Hollingsworth Funds, a charitable support organization, which Terry serves as president and CEO.
Terry says the goal of the foundation is to give away money and continue to build funds to increase the giving. In 2013, Hollingsworth Funds contributed $6.1 million dollars in grants to Furman University, the Greenville YMCA and 69 other nonprofit organizations within Greenville County.
“That’s the fruit of the labor,” says Terry.
Terry grew up in a textile city in Rockingham, N.C. Both of his grandfathers were in textiles and thought maybe he might follow in their footsteps. But Terry was more interested in business and marketing. He went to the University of North Carolina and set off on a career in the banking industry that spanned 38 years before making a career change that brought him to Hollingsworth Funds.
Terry had banked with Hollingsworth in the past and says he “knew the complexities of Mr. Hollingsworth’s operations and companies.” So when Irvine T. (Buck) Welling Jr., who had served as chairman and president of Hollingsworth Funds since the organization’s inception in 1964, became ill, the company brought Terry in, initially to work with Welling and then transitioning to his role as CEO and president.
How did you decide on a career in banking?
I kept waiting to see what I really wanted to be, and after about 38 years in banking, I figured out I wanted to be a banker. The job gives you about 60 percent content and 40 percent opportunity, so I always tried to do the things I liked to do and wanted to do within the framework of the job. I was very fortunate to work with and for some very gifted peopled. At one time I thought it would be fun to be in human resources to train and attract talent, so I always stayed very active in that aspect of the company.
What would have been a second career choice?
I probably would have gone into sales. I also had thought it would be fun to have a hardware store with hunting supplies on one side and antiques on the other side to bring my hobbies together. I also did some financial consulting for a little while.
Who was your mentor?
There are too many to enumerate just one or two. There were high school football coaches, a minister at church, people that I work with and for, and customers I had where I learned about their process and studied their leadership success. I don’t want to say that I gleaned and plagiarized, but I was fortunate to meet some very talented people along the way and was able to figure out what I liked best and least. Just watching the best of the best and emulating them.
What about work ethic?
My grandfathers, on both sides, spent 50 years each in the textile mills and had a very strong work ethic. My parents also worked, and my dad taught me that work was a responsibility. The ethic of that came from them. Oddly enough, a lot of the strengths and beliefs come from people you work with, and if you pay attention, it makes you become a better manager and worker.
What was the most rewarding part of your career?
In the mid 1980s, I was chosen to go to Florida to head up a tax squad for First Union Bank in preparation for interstate banking. I got to choose talented people to go with me and set up shop. It was the most challenging and exciting opportunity in my career. I was Daniel Boone and it was fun.
But after a few years, I saw my young family wasn’t sharing in that excitement. I learned the lesson that there has to be balance. It’s not always about the job. It’s as much about the challenge and where you have the chance to do your work. Bloom where you are planted, but bloom on fertile soil.
How did you end up in Greenville?
In 1986, I was actually at the airport headed from Florida back to a job in Charlotte when I got a call from a bank that had just acquired another bank in Greenville, asking if I wanted to be part of the leadership team there. I had been to Greenville before and knew it was a pretty neat spot, so I spent the next day driving around Greenville and then called my wife and asked her what she thought about living in Greenville, S.C. She said, “As long as they have big oak trees, I’m in,” and that’s how we ended up here.
What keeps you up at night?
A couple of things. Our parents and other previous generations always had the adage that they wanted more for their kids that what they had – whether that’s opportunity or wealth or whatever. I want that for my kids and I worry about the next generation – that’s my grandkids now – and how they will be able to pull that off. How will they be able to be successful? What will be the predicators of success and wellness? I’m not sure that it’s hard work anymore, and I worry about the lack of ethic in everything we touch and what it has cost us.
What does the legacy of the Hollingsworth Funds look like in 10, 20 years?
To date we’ve probably gifted $45 million dollars or so, and I’m hoping that we will continue to gift more and more money. And not to only act as good stewards of the assets but also to be supporters, allies and collaborators to those organizations that we help. As an entity, we want to continue to grow the gift and make sure the monies we are giving are doing a bigger job and have a greater impact as a result. We want to gift those assets in a thoughtful, provocative and supportive way.
