Cassius Priestly's mother died when he was 10. As he says, his father, a teacher, "could have easily folded the tent." Instead, Frank Priestly raised his three children with this advice: "You really can't control the direction of the wind, but you can control the way you point your sails."
Priestly, now 33, is at the helm of SunTrust's business banking for north Florida, with responsibilities from Jacksonville to Pensacola. In 2001, his first year as manager, the unit placed second among 32 SunTrust banks in exceeding goals. "Cassius is an outstanding young man who took the training opportunities provided to new bankers and grew his professionalism into a leader within SunTrust," says George Koehn, chairman and CEO of SunTrust Bank Florida.
Cassius PriestlyFirst vice president, business banking, North Florida / SunTrustJacksonvilleEducation: Bachelor's in accounting, Grambling State University, 1992; MBA, University of Phoenix, 2002.Extracurricular: He's on the board of First Coast Black Business Investment Corp., teaches Sunday school and is on the trustee board at Historic Mount Zion AME Church. Playtime: Running, reading and sporting events.Most important: God, family, health and job "in that order."Priestly joined SunTrust as an intern while at Grambling. (He was headed for a Florida State football scholarship when a knee injury ended his career. He says it was "a blessing in disguise" that focused him more on academics.) After summers as a teller and other jobs, he became a credit analyst, commercial lender and business banker.
"As a producer, individually, I always did well," he says. Now, he's learning to work through others. A graduate of Jacksonville's Ribault High, Priestly participates in a mentoring program to raise Ribault's FCAT scores. He's also treasurer of the local Guide Right scholarship foundation, a project of his Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
Frank Priestly's other children also did well. De'Wayne Priestly is an accountant, and Brenda Priestly Jackson is a lawyer and Duval County school board member.
"We owe it all to him," Priestly says of his father. They wonder how to repay him. Frank Priestly tells them only to do the same for their own children. But dad set the bar too high, Priestly says. He tells dad: "Can we buy you a recliner and call it even?"
A Capacity for Responsibility
Let's tally up Cali Garcia-Velez's responsibilities: He's been president of Citibank Florida since 1999. In 2002, Citibank put him in charge of its Puerto Rico operation. In January, he was given the mid-Atlantic region as well. All told, he's responsible for 1,600 employees at 74 branches. And he's 35. "Age isn't a factor," he says. "It's capacity."
Calixto Garcia-VelezBusiness manager / Citibank South
President / Citibank FloridaMiamiDiversions: A boat. "My kids have grown up on the boat." Boat story: In high school, out with friends on Biscayne Bay, he failed to watch the fuel gauge and ran out of fuel. Friends took his passengers ashore, but he spent the night on the boat in the bay. "I have a feeling my parents did it to teach me a lesson." Education: University of Miami, bachelor's in business administration with a concentration in management, 1988; MBA, 1990.A Miami native born of Cuban immigrant parents, Garcia-Velez certainly is demonstrating some capaciousness. He also chairs the Alliance for Human Services, the organization that does the master plan for health and human services in Miami-Dade. In October, he will move up from vice chair to chairman of the Beacon Council, the economic development group in Miami-Dade.
A graduate of Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami, he finished his undergrad at the University of Miami a year early and joined a First Union management training program. Ten years ago, Citibank recruited him to work in a Coral Gables branch. He moved up to area manager and then managed Citibank's Florida commercial banking team. As Florida president, his operation has consistently performed well across all segments, says Citibank. It grew deposits 10% in 2002 to $3.5 billion, for example. And it rates tops in the nation for Citibank for employee satisfaction.
Though small in asset size compared to the superregionals, Citibank's branch averages "clearly outperform any other bank in the market," he says. "Focus and execution," Garcia-Velez says. "Success is all about execution."
The same is true for family time, he says. With his wife, Carmen, Garcia-Velez has three children. "If I try to stay in my office until my work gets done, I'd never leave."
Family Role
Raul G. Valdés-Fauli
Senior vice president, commercial lending / Colonial Bank
Miami
Education: Born in Boston (a "passionate Red Sox fan") while his dad was in law school, Valdés-Fauli attended Governor Dummer boarding school in Newbury, Mass., and then Lake Forest College in Illinois.
Service: Valdés-Fauli was in the Peace Corps in Honduras, leading a mountain community in the construction of a water plant. Basketball proved a diversion to the hard life. At 5-foot-9, "I was by far the tallest guy there. I don't get to play center too much around here." He chairs Miami-Dade's Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Personal: He's 35 and will marry in November. Pastimes are tennis, gym workouts and dinner on Miami Beach.
Professional: In banking for 10 years, first with Eastern National Bank. He moved to Colonial with his uncle Jose, who is Colonial's south Florida region CEO. Valdés-Fauli oversees three lenders and a $250-million to $255-million loan portfolio, most of it in real estate. "My real strength is building the relationship."
Worst loan he ever made: It suffices to say "I don't like retail shoes anymore."
Scion: Valdés-Fauli's father, attorney Raul J. Valdés-Fauli, was Coral Gables' mayor and chairs Eastern National; his aunt Teresa Weintraub is CEO of Fiduciary Trust International of the South. Uncle Gonzalo, a private investor, is a former managing director of Barclays Bank. "I have a lot of role models in my immediate family."
Community Banker
A University of North Alabama grad who couldn't find a job in social work -- her chosen field -- Robbie Roepstorff in 1974 became a teller. Upon moving to Florida three years later, she moved up the ranks at several banks. Now she's president of $114 million in assets Edison National Bank in Fort Myers (and its Bank of the Islands in Sanibel), which she founded in 1997 with her husband, and CEO, Geoffrey Roepstorff. "I am a community banker through and through."