Judge Phil Ginn assumed the role as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary as of April 1, 2021. Judge Ginn is a retired Superior Court Judge, attorney, and businessman. He has been married to his wife, Lynn for almost 42 years. Together they have 4 daughters, 3 sons-in-law and 5 wonderful grandchildren (he has pictures). He holds a B.A. from Appalachian State University, a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Doctor of Ministry from Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC.

After a distinguished career as both a lawyer and a judge, Judge Ginn retired as the Senior Resident Superior Court Judge for the 24th Judicial District in North Carolina. Over the course of his 22 year judicial career, he was privileged to hold court in almost 50% of the county seats in North Carolina. Upon retirement at the end of 2014, using his experience from his 4 decades as an attorney and judge, Judge Ginn purchased a struggling horizontal pump company in Tulsa, Ok. Over the next 3 years through prudent and visionary leadership, he managed to turn the business into one of the largest privately owned horizontal pump companys in the United States. In early 2018, Judge Ginn completed the sale of the company and returned to his beloved mountains of North Carolina. Currently, in addition to his participation in real estate development, he continues to do consulting work, has served as co-counsel on a variety of major legal cases, and is active as both a Mediator and Arbitrator.

Through the years, Judge Ginn has remained active with Southern Evangelical Seminary not only because of his friendship and admiration for his mentor, Dr. Norm Geisler, but also because of his strong belief in the mission of the seminary to evangelize our culture through apologetics. For the past two years, Judge Ginn has served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees. With the retirement of prior SES president Dr. Richard Land, Judge Ginn has answered the call to become the new president of Southern Evangelical Seminary which has played such an integral part in his faith development. Judge Ginn began the role as SES President in April 2021. Interestingly, he is the first graduate of SES to assume this role.

In his spare time, Judge Ginn remains highly involved with his family. He is also active in the faith community in many varied roles including having been licensed to preach as an Elder in his home church, Perkinsville Baptist Church in Boone, NC.