CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ben Navarro lives in Charleston, South Carolina, on Broad Street, which personifies the aristocracy of the old South with its historic architecture and history amid a canopy of moss-filled oak trees. Yet there's little to nothing that appears privileged or noble about this 54-year-old man who grew up in the middle-class Northeast United States and is described by many friends as blue collar.
He often rides his bicycle to Sherman Financial Group, the global diversified investment services company he brought to this famous port city 15 years ago when he moved his family south seeking a better quality of life.