FAIRHOPE, Ala. - John A. Brown has just been named mentor of the year by the South Alabama chapter of SCORE, the nation's largest network of "business experts offering free business advice".

In accepting the award, the long-time Fairhope resident and founder of Brown Financial Advisory, was typically self-effacing. "I really don't know what I did to deserve this honor. I just try to put myself in every client's shoes, and be that trusted advisor that we all need from time to time. Just like everyone else here."

Like every SCORE mentor, Brown has an impressive list of qualifications. Just to name a few, he has been an instructor in financial, investment and estate planning at the University of South Alabama; president of the Gulf Coast Society of Certified Financial Planners; a board member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors; a volunteer mediator for the Baldwin County District Court; and when he sold Brown Financial Advisory in 2010, the firm was managing $92 million on a discretionary basis. 

In presenting the award, South Alabama SCORE president Thomas Hollomon said, "John not only represents the best and brightest, he has a sense of empathy that runs deeper than the Mariana Trench. He really, really cares. And that's what makes him so good."