Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, January 4, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 036 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Photo by David Chapman
Buyouts of banks top local stocks
John Guy begins his judicial career Tuesday after 22 years in the State Attorney’s Office. He was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott in mid-December and said the move is a way to continue his public service.
An unexpected path 22-year prosecutor starts judgeship Tuesday
By David Chapman Staff Writer John Guy’s career hasn’t been an accident. But it hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, either. He didn’t go to the University of Florida to study law. That happened after psychology didn’t pan out. He didn’t become an attorney to be a prosecutor. He wanted to be involved with sports, maybe as an agent. And he didn’t become a prosecutor to become a judge. Yet, here he is, starting his judicial career Tuesday taking over Family Law Division C after 22 years in the State Attorney’s
Office. It was a place he loved. Exciting and fun. But more so, he said, it was meaningful to the families of victims, those he helped bring justice. “These people hug you and they will hold on to you,” Guy said. Over the years he still gets cards, calls and emails from families he’s helped. “It has such a profound impact on their life,” he said. “It keeps you going … what you do has meaning.” He had no inclination to do anything else until he again put his name in the running and received a call from the governor, who said his public service was needed on the bench. “You go nowhere by accident,” Guy
starts, citing a famous benediction by former U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson. It’s one of Guy’s favorites, a phrase that “probably fits me best.” No, it hasn’t been an accident. It’s a plan, Guy said. It’s just one he jokingly said he’s still trying to figure out.
A change in course
Guy has spent most of his life in one place. He grew up in the Washington, D.C., area, but moved south when his parents divorced. He moved with his mother, a freelance writer, and a couple of his older Guy
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There’s nothing like a good buyout to lift the price of a stock, even if your company isn’t actually the target of a buyout. The top performer among all publicly traded Jacksonville-based companies in 2015 was Jacksonville Bancorp Inc., which jumped 53 percent after agreeing to an acquisition offer from Ameris Bancorp in September. Meanwhile, the second-best performer was Jacksonville’s other publicly traded community banking company, Atlantic Coast Financial Corp. Atlantic Coast Financial rose 48 percent in 2015. While the company’s financial performance has improved tremendously over the last two years, the most likely catalyst for its stock spurt last year would be speculation about a possible buyout. However, there have been no indications that any kind of a merger is in the cards in the near future. The other big winner among Jacksonville companies last year provides services to banking companies. Black Knight Financial Services Inc. was spun off from Fidelity National Financial Inc. in May with an initial public offering and rose 35 percent over its seven months of trading after the IPO. Black Knight provides processing services for mortgage lenders and is the dominant player in its field, as more than half of all U.S. mortgage loans are serviced through its systems. That dominance has impressed investors.
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Ex-pitcher’s nonprofit works to find missing kids
Signs like this one may appear on the concourses at 160 minor league baseball parks in 2016.
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Special to the Daily Record
By Max Marbut Staff Writer “If I hadn’t been injured, it wouldn’t have happened” and “I decided it was my job to do.” That’s how Dennis Bair describes events leading to starting BairFind Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to reuniting missing children with their families. Drafted in 1995 by the Chicago Cubs organization, Bair pitched in the minor leagues until he injured his throwing shoulder during spring training in 1997. During his rehabilitation, there was plenty of time to watch television. One day while channel-
surfing, he ran across a documentary that caught his attention. It told the story of a couple whose daughter disappeared and the effect it had on their family. “They were an affluent, happy family until the day their 13-yearold daughter didn’t come home from a Pearl Jam concert,” said Bair. The documentary showed how the parents turned the search for their daughter into their only mission, which eventually led to them losing their jobs and their home. The scene that really hit home for Bair was a shot of a trash can full of the missing-child flyers the couple had made and then dis-
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tributed hoping someone would recognize their daughter. “That gave me an idea,” he said. Something he noticed while traveling around minor-league ballparks was how fans treasured team posters, so Bair promoted the idea of placing photographs and information about missing children on the team souvenirs. When he returned to the mound in 2000, Bair convinced the owner of the Canton (Ohio) Crocodiles to be the first to feature missing children on the team poster. It worked. Bair said one of two missing Nonprofit continued on Page A-2
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