Trevor Burgess

Trevor Burgess is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He was an investment banker and CEO of C1 Financial. He is the founder of TRB Development and the president, majority shareholder and CEO of Neptune Flood Insurance.

Early life Burgess has been openly gay since his teenage years. Former BP chief John Browne noted that homophobic corporate cultures and board of directors keep people in the closet with corporations level of conservativeness rising with the company's size.

On becoming the first openly gay banking CEO, Burgess told CNBC, “If that can help the next generation of leaders come out and feel comfortable being authentic, like kids who are in college and considering careers in finance or being entrepreneurs, I’m really lucky.”

Businesses

Burgess is the founder and CEO of the former C1 Bank, and its bank holding company, C1 Financial (NYSE: BNK). Burgess served as a director of C1 after acquiring control of C1's predecessor bank, Community Bank of Manatee, in December 2009.

C1 Bank was a $1.7bn bank focused on the needs of entrepreneurs, and had 31 offices throughout Florida. Burgess was named the 2014 American Banker Community Banker of the Year and was recognized as the 2013 Ernst & Young Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in the financial services category. In 2014 SNL named C1 the 6th fastest growing bank in the country over the prior five years. C1 Bank was acquired by Bank OZK in July 2016 generating a 47% return for its IPO investors in less than 24 months.

After selling C1 Bank in 2016, Burgess formed TRB Development with his business partner, Jon Carlon. TRB Development is focused on "acquiring and developing residential home sites to deliver great value-priced, move-in-ready new homes."

In 2018, Burgess purchased a controlling stake in Neptune Flood Insurance. Burgess offers residential and commercial flood insurance. Neptune filed a patent for its Artificial Intelligence engine in 2019 for which it was awarded the Novarica Impact award for Data & Analytics. Neptune has grown from 50 policies in January 2018 to over 35,000 in 2020. "It had $17 million in premium at the end of 2019, and Burgess projects $40 million to $50 million in premium, by the end of 2020 — even with the coronavirus-based business slowdown." In August 2022, Neptune Insurance ranked 205 out of 5,000 on Inc. Magazine's fastest growing company list.

In May 2023, Burgess's company Neptune Insurance sold a minority stake to private equity firms Bregal Sagemount and FTV Capital. In August 2025, Neptune Insurance filed for a US listing as IPO.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Neptune Insurance has over 260,000 policy holders; on October 1, 2025, Neptune Insurance went public on the New York Stock Exchange.

Personal life Trevor Burgess became the first openly gay CEO of a bank on the New York Stock Exchange when C1 Financial, which is based in St Petersburg, Florida, made a $44.7 million public offering in August 2014. In the company's initial public offering filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission he disclosed that his husband, Gary Hess, held some shares thus confirming his sexuality in the disclosure. Burgess and Hess have a daughter, Logan.

He has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek's "Out on the Street" and in the book, "The G Quotient-Why Gay Executives are Excelling as Leaders." In 2013 he won Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in Florida's financial services category. In 2015 the Financial Times in conjunction with OUTstanding, named Mr. Burgess one of the leading global LGBT executives. In 2016, NBC News named Trevor one of "11 Out Business Leaders You Should Know." In 2019, OUTstanding and Yahoo! Finance listed Trevor as one of the top 100 global LGBT+ executive role models.

Burgess and Hess are involved with multiple charities. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, they donated 30,000, masks to the city of St. Petersburg.