Former US senator, UF president joins area bank board

Ben Sasse, who spent 18 months as president of the University of Florida after nearly a decade in the U.S. Senate, has been appointed to the board of Polk County-based SouthState Bank. 

Sasse, according to a statement, is now on the boards of the bank and its Winter Haven-based parent, SouthState Bank Corp. 

“We are honored to welcome Ben to our board of directors,” SouthState CEO John Corbett says in the release. “His distinguished record of public service, deep insight into national and global policy, and his leadership in higher education will bring a valuable perspective to our company,” 

Sasse is currently a president emeritus and professor in the Hamilton School at the University of Florida in Gainesville, according to the statement. His brief tenure at the helm of the school, according to UF, was highlighted by being named the No. 1 public university in the country by the Wall Street Journal; the school says as president he “pushed forward to continue to provide elite education that is radically practical.” 

Sasse’s term also was marked by some controversy: He allegedly leveraged his executive privileges to inappropriately spend university funds, according to reporting from The Alligator, the student-led newspaper at UF, and other media organizations, based on a preliminary report from the Florida Auditor General. The report, according to The Alligator, alleged that, among other issues, Sasse used “more than $300,000 in university funds to charter flights on the University Athletic Association’s private jets for trips with no clear business purposes.”

Sasse resigned from the UF post in July 2024, following wife Melissa’s epilepsy diagnosis, the school says. 

Prior to UF, Sasse came to national prominence as a Republican senator from his home state of Nebraska. He served in the U.S. Senate from 2015-2023, where he was on the Finance, Intelligence, Judiciary, Banking, and Budget committees. He had previously served in the Bush Administration, as assistant secretary of health and human services for planning and evaluation. 

SouthState Bank provides consumer, commercial, mortgage and wealth management solutions to more than 1.5 million customers throughout Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Georgia, Colorado, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee. It had $65.85 billion in assets and $54.19 billion in deposits.