CENTRAL — C. Pete Benson of Franklin, Tenn., was recently elected to Southern Wesleyan University’s board of trustees.

C. Pete Benson

Born and raised on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada, Benson has served The Wesleyan Church for many years as a minister and a church planter. In 1998, Benson entered the financial industry, founding Beacon Capital Management in 2000, a company with locations in Franklin, Tenn., and Nashville, Tenn., that manages more than $500 million in assets. Benson has created and presented seminars for The Wesleyan Church in the U.S. and Canada and spent three years training financial advisors across the nation. He also has conducted financial seminars at Wesleyan church camps and at Kingswood University. He has been interviewed by CNBC and Fox Business News and has been quoted in Reuters. He is co-authoring an upcoming book titled “Money Enough for Life.”

Benson also serves on the boards of Kingswood University, Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada; Buckingham Leadership Institute and Platinum Advisor Strategies.

Benson is currently a member of Seal Cove Wesleyan Church and is also a member of Church of the City Launch Team in Franklin and Nashville. He served as a Wesleyan pastor from 1979-1996 and planted Wesleyan churches in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and Huntsville, Ala.

Benson has a B.A. in religion from Kingswood University and a master’s degree in counseling from Eastern Nazarene College.

He and Ginnie, his wife of 37 years, have three children: Ginger Pilarski, Amanda Loosier and Daniel Benson. Daniel is a 2005 SWU graduate. The Bensons also have six grandchildren.