Buoyed by Georgia’s booming fintech industry, Columbus-based Total System Services Inc.’s SVP, GC and corporate secretary Sanders Griffith III is holding steady at No. 3. Last year, Griffith earned $1,450,395 in total cash. That amounts to a $558,000 salary and $892,395 in nonequity incentives. He also received nearly $1.2 million more in stock awards and options.

Griffith joined Synovus Financial Corp. as GC in 1988 and served as the top lawyer there, as well as at subsidiary Total System Services. The two companies separated at the end of 2007, and Griffith stayed on as legal boss at his current employer.