Chairman/Chief Executive Officer
Ginn Resorts
Edward Robert “Bobby” Ginn is chairman and CEO of Ginn Resorts™. Ginn has spent the past three decades acquiring, developing and managing residential, resort golf course and mixed-use properties. He began the company today known as Ginn Resorts in 1998 with six of his colleagues. The company now includes more than 2,500 employees from Colorado to St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. and is one of the fastest growing development companies in the Southeast. With nearly 40,000 acres currently either in planning or under development, Ginn Resorts provides complete in-house services in a variety of fields including land acquisition, development, architecture and planning, engineering, golf course construction, landscaping and real estate sales and marketing.
Ginn has developed a sports marketing division of the company to manage the growing portfolio of LPGA and PGA Champions Tour golf tournaments. Beginning with long-term sponsorship agreements with No.1-ranked female golfer Annika Sorenstam and LPGA star Cristie Kerr, he became further involved with the LPGA by producing the inaugural Ginn Open, played at Reunion, Fla., April 24-30, 2006. As one of the richest events on the LPGA tour, the tournament attracted 49 of the top 50 players in the LPGA and became the template that Ginn Resorts will utilize to build upon in creating its showcase events.
Prior to founding Ginn Resorts, Bobby was involved in several golf community projects in the Southeast. From 1975 to 1987, he lived in Hilton Head, S.C., building, developing and operating golf courses and hotels. As his company grew he gained valuable experience in both sales and financing. His involvement in this industry began in 1971 in Pleasant Point, South Carolina.
Ginn has worked in all aspects of the construction and development business, right down to framing roofs, building cabinets and digging septic tanks. He and his father renovated houses and built and sold homes through the Farmer’s Home Administration. They soon grew from building four or five new houses a year to 350 and, before long, to 700. He then put his experience to work developing apartment buildings, shopping centers and industrial warehouses.
Ginn began his career working for his father, a builder in the small town of Hampton, S.C., where his family was involved in agriculture and timber for three generations. A graduate of Florida Military School in Deland, Fla., Ginn majored in business at the University of South Carolina, leaving school to return home to the construction business when his father became ill.
