Ben "Todd" Parnell III was named as the interim President of Drury University at a faculty/staff meeting in Clara Thompson Hall on April 23, 2007, upon the resignation of John Sellars, Drury's fifteenth President. After a number of options were considered for the office, Parnell was inaugurated as Drury University's sixteenth President on April 20, 2008 by Drury's trustee-driven search committee.[1]
Vice chairman of the Board of Directors of The Signature Bank, Todd Parnell has been a Breech Advisory Board member since 2003. Parnell graduated from Drury University in 1969. He then went on to earn his Master's in Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 1971. While at Drury, Parnell was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha and Omicron Delta Kappa and spent a semester studying abroad in London.
Prior to his position as president of The Signature Bank, Parnell was president of Truman Bank and executive vice president of First National Bank, both located in Clayton, Missouri. Currently, Parnell serves as the board chairman of the Springfield, Missouri, Area Chamber of Commerce, member of the Springfield-Branson National Airport board, member of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks board, member of the Rotary Club of Southeast Springfield, treasurer of the James River Basin Partnership, treasurer of the Upper White River Basin Foundation, and board member for Missouri Bankers Association and Wonders of Wildlife.
Parnell is the recent author of Postcards from Branson: A Century of Family Reminiscence.[2]
His father was Ben Parnell Jr. Ben was founder and President of People's Bank, now Ozark Mountain Bank, in Branson, MO.[3]