Charles Ray Sheffield to lead George C. Woodruff Company as Otis Scarborough retires

George C. Woodruff Company President Otis Scarborough will step down at the end of the year and Charles Ray Sheffield will become president and chief executive officer of the 100-year-old family-owned corporation.

Sheffield has spent the past five years working as CEO of the Woodruff Company and was on the board of directors beginning in 2006.

After President George C. Woodruff Jr., died in May 2012, Scarborough, then 66, put in place a succession plan. Scarborough has worked with the company for 40 years, the past 35 as president.

“I asked Charles Ray, who was on our board and worked for the Synovus trust department, to consider coming and working with me for five years,” Scarborough said. “I thought he was the man that should succeed me, to take this and set it up for another 100 years. Jan. 1 he takes over, and I'm more convinced today that I made the right decision.”

Sheffield, 51 and a native of Americus, Ga., brought a wide range of experience to the real estate and development company.

Prior to joining the Woodruff Company, he was chief operating officer for Synovus Family Asset Management, which provided investment management, estate planning and financial services to families throughout the southeast. A graduate of Mercer Law School, Sheffield has more than a decade of legal experience, include serving as assistant general counsel with Synovus, where his practice focused on technology outsourcing agreements for TSYS, a former Synovus holding. Prior to moving to Columbus, he worked at Smith, Currie and Hancock in Atlanta, where his duties focused on construction litigation and arbitration.

“I went after one person, because I knew he was the right person to do the job,” Scarborough said. “... I had to find somebody if I was going to retire in five years. You can't just walk into this place. I mean, there is just too much going on.”

During his work with Synovus Family Asset Management, Sheffield got to know George C. Woodruff Jr.

“I love this family that I work for,” Sheffield said. “I was close to Mr. Woodruff Jr., and I am close with his son, George Woodruff III. Mr. Woodruff Jr. and I hit it off in the early 2000s when I was at Synovus. I enjoyed getting to know him and his family.”

The family company, a large-scale residential and commercial developer, is owned by George Woodruff III. The company is involved in real estate brokerage, property management, construction, landscaping and design.

The company was founded in 1916 by George C. Woodruff Sr. as a real estate and insurance company. Woodruff Sr. was also a head football coach for the University of Georgia.

“Mr. Woodruff Sr. was downtown, and his love was leasing,” Scarborough said. “He knew every square foot of every building and every tenant and every lease and everything about the downtown area. He was a great, great real estate agent.”

The focus changed in the 1950s when George Woodruff Jr. took a greater role in the company, Scaborough said.

“George Jr. came, and his love was not downtown,” Scarborough said. “His heart was cutting lots out of pieces of land, and so he developed over 50 subdivisions. He cut over 10,000 lots. He built a few shopping centers and some office parks. You know why he did that? He loved it, and he was very successful. ... He loved that phase. I love the multi-family phase and the commercial shopping center phase.”

The fact that he is only the fifth person to lead the company in 100 years speaks to a conservative management philosophy, Sheffield said.

“We don’t want to overreach,” he said. “We are not going to make as much money when things are smoking hot as some companies will, ... But, consequently, in difficult times, bad times and slow times, we are probably going to be doing a lot better than most.”

The past five years have helped Sheffield prepare for his tenure, he said.

“The last five years, we had so much in the pipeline that it really proved to be beneficial,” Sheffield said. “It got me on the ground floor of a lot of development work in a short period of time. The last five years, even by this company’s standards, have been hectic, and hectic in a good way.”

There is pressure with his new role, Sheffield said.

“I don’t want us to do anything that George Woodruff Jr. or my current boss, George Woodruff III, wouldn’t be proud of,” Sheffield said. “In the long, rich tradition of all of the things that Otis and others have accomplished here, I don’t want to let them down. We don’t want to let the family down. There is pressure there, but I am excited about the challenge and look forward to it.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Charles Ray Sheffield to lead George C. Woodruff Company as Otis Scarborough retires."