Arkansan named to Chronicle of Philanthropy’s inaugural ‘Under 40’ list

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the nation’s leading philanthropic publication, last week unveiled its inaugural 40 Under 40 List of “Young leaders who are solving the problems of today – tomorrow.”

Dominik Mjartan, CEO of Southern Bancorp Community Partners was one of only three southerners to be named to the list and the only to be recognized from Arkansas. The list includes philanthropic leaders, economic developers, social advocates and visionaries, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

“As the Chronicle notes, this list includes ‘trailblazers crafting innovative new approaches to entrenched problems,’ and there are few problems as entrenched as the economic challenges facing rural America,” said Darrin Williams, Southern Bancorp Inc.’s CEO. “Dom has played a key role in advising the Southern family of companies on innovative new financial development tools and lending programs aimed at lifting individuals out of poverty and placing them on the road to economic mobility.”

Mjartan has worked for the Southern Bancorp organization since 2006 focusing on development, marketing and corporate strategy as a Senior Vice President. In 2015, the board of directors of Southern Bancorp Community Partners named Mjartan as their chief executive officer. Southern Bancorp Community Partners is the nonprofit financial development organization that partners with Southern Bancorp, Inc. to provide financial development tools and lending.

“Given the number of impressive leaders doing transformational work all over the world, it’s very humbling to be included in this list of individuals,” said Mjartan. “While my focus at Southern is to help provide rural communities with financial products and services that help hard working people earn the American Dream, it is also to develop long-term, large-scale solutions that can transcend one state or one region of the country. Our hope at Southern is to scale the innovative financial development tools and products needed to lift any distressed community in America out of poverty so that the American Dream I’ve been able to pursue when I came to America is also in reach of everyone, regardless of zip code.”

The full list can be found here.