Mario Davis named as CEO of YMCA in Columbus

Mario Davis has been named CEO and president of the YMCA of Metropolitan Columbus, Ga.

The announcement was made Monday.

He will begin in the new position on Jan. 1.

Davis, 37, who serves as chairman of the YMCA Board of Directors, has been performing the duties on a part-time basis since David Reeves and the YMCA parted ways in October.

Reeves came to Columbus from Jackson, Miss., and began work in April of this year. Reeves became director following the death of David Steele, who had led the YMCA since 1992.

Davis said Reeves left to pursue other opportunities.

“It just did not work out,” he said.

Frank Lumpkin, a YMCA board member, said Reeves has an ailing father in Texas.

Until the end of the year, Davis will continue his job as a senior vice president and market leader at F&M Bank & Trust in Columbus, a role he has held since 2015.

“I am thrilled to be able to continue my service to the YMCA and community,” he said. “I have had the great privilege to serve as a member of the board of directors for the last seven years, for two of those as vice chairman and the last two years as chairman of the board. We have a great board of directors, all of whom have supported me in the role as chairman. We’ve developed great chemistry over the last few years and I am thrilled to be able to continue working alongside the board of directors and our great team to advance the mission of the association.”

“To me Mario is the right person at the right time,” said Frank Lumpkin who led the search committee. “He has a great passion for the YMCA and as a board member has provided great leadership. He has great management skills which are needed because it is a challenge to be a nonprofit these days.”

John Thayer, another board member, said of the hiring of Davis, “we are thrilled to death.”

“Mario is just an outstanding individual,” he added. “He is very well respected and has a lot of experience dealing with people.”

The YMCA has three branches, The John P. Thayer YMCA downtown, the D.A. Turner YMCA on Warm Springs Road and the A.J. McClung YMCA on Martin Luther King Boulevard. The YMCA also has wellness centers at Aflac and TSYS.

“We are blessed,” Davis said.

Though the YMCA is more than a fitness center, basketball, weight lifting, rock climbing, swimming, racquet all, yoga, spin classes and Tae Kwon Do are just a few of the activities offered.

Davis is a graduate of Carver High School in Columbus and Albany State University. He has a master’s degree from Troy University.

He began his career in banking as a management associate with Columbus Bank & Trust.

From 2012-2015 he was a member of the St. Francis Hospital Board of Trustees and he was a member of the board of directors at the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce from 2014-2015.

Davis is married to Dr. Yolanda Gray-Davis, a family physician at Martin Army Community Hospital at Fort Benning. They have two children.

“We feel there is a lot of potential and that the YMCA here can be bigger and better,” Davis said.

Of the personnel working at the YMCA, Davis remarked, “we have a really good team in place.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Mario Davis named as CEO of YMCA in Columbus."