Bill Smith's roots with Tallahassee-based Capital City Bank Group run deep. His father joined Capital in 1937 and spent the next 63 years there, rising to the top job. The elder Smith, the son says, was "very much the heart and soul of this company."
The new heart and soul of the community bank, 46-year-old Smith the younger, uses modern tools. He requires senior managers to hold Capital stock equivalent to twice their annual salary. "He's heavily into team people, team rewards and equity ownership and individual responsibility," says Robinson-Humphries analyst Jefferson Harralson. Capital vies with Bank of America for top market share in Tallahassee and ranks in the top three in market share in most of its other markets.
Smith moved the bank to the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1997 and last year led it to acquire a small Georgia institution. Continued expansion along Interstates 75 and 10 can be expected. The bank now has $1.45 billion in assets and 48 offices -- up a bunch from the one-office, $1.3-million (assets) bank his father joined.
But Smith maintains traditional touches. A great reward of banking, he says, is driving around town and seeing businesses and buildings the bank funded.
Protege at NationsBank: Staying the Course
Susan Walker learned positioning from a master. For years, Walker -- who was Susan Hughey before she got married -- ran for the NationsBank corporate team. During a particularly difficult relay race with NationsBank glory at stake, she looked up to find that NationsBank Chairman Hugh McColl had stationed himself at the critical turn in the course. "Run, Hughey, run!" he shouted. Grateful for the encouragement, she won.
Walker's grateful too for the latest course she runs -- as private bank president for NationsBank/Bank of America in Florida, where the bank has $15 billion in assets and 26 offices. A career NationsBank employee -- she joined it in Charlotte when it still was North Carolina National Bank -- the 43-year-old came up on the credit-analysis side, switching to trusts and private banking only in 1993. She came to Jacksonville in 1998 as Barnett's and NationsBank's private bank operations merged. NationsBank positions its private bank as a one-stop shop. Walker says that unlike many private banks, NationsBank combines trust and private banking services. It offers both traditional trust services and financing for yachts, airplanes and luxury second homes to the newly stock-rich but relatively cash-poor. It requires forging personal ties. Walker says private banking is the most personal work there is at a large bank.
Despite the often-cited hand grenade on his desk, former Marine McColl also has a personal touch. She still cherishes a handwritten note she got from McColl expressing his pride in her after the birth of her first child. "He is very human," Walker says.
Unibanco: International Focus
In six years in the U.S., Marcos Pereria has developed an affinity for the NBA, NFL and snow skiing. He also has developed a reputation as a communicator about all things Brazil, international banking and his employer UniBanco. How much time he apportions to each of those subjects depends on whether Brazil is stable or in tumult.
As Miami general manager for the third-largest bank in Florida's largest trading partner, Pereria has been tapped by the private Florida International Bankers Association to explain international banking issues to Washington lawmakers and Federal Reserve staff. He's in line to be the association's next president.
His day job calls for signing new banks to correspondent relationships with UniBanco. He also helps syndicate Brazilian corporate debt in the U.S. and explain novel financial instruments.
Raised in Rio de Janeiro, where he attended Pontifica Universidade Catolica, Pereria, 38, can expect his career track to take him back to Brazil eventually. Meanwhile, he's supplemented his education with executive programs at U.S. universities -- the latest being a Northwestern University session on negotiating strategies. "That's basically what I'm doing on a daily basis," he says. "I'm negotiating." And taking in Miami Heat games.
Fiduciary Trust International: 'Very, Very Quiet'
Teresa Valdes-Fauli Weintraub co-chairs the Miami-Dade County Leave a Legacy Project and has a leadership position or membership in a half-dozen other charities. Last year, she prompted the Miami Herald to devote a 34-page special section to philanthropy.
No wonder she feels the need in an interview to stress that her family and job -- not charity -- hold the top spots on her priority list. Weintraub, 47, is CEO of Fiduciary Trust International in Miami, a "very, very quiet" trust business whose assets under administration grew 30% last year to $2.3 billion.
A Havana native, Weintraub worked as an in-house tax attorney for Exxon Corp. in New York and Miami before leaving in 1986 to become a fund-raiser for the University of Miami. After 10 years, she joined Northern Trust in Miami in sales, where she created a new program for managing charitable assets. She jumped to New York-based Fiduciary in 1998, where she could create, manage and build. Her long list of civic involvements ought to help, but, she says, charity isn't about networking; it's about "passion" and "fun."
She looks to be passing it on. Her 16-year-old son Robert serves as treasurer of a B'nai B'rith unit, 13-year-old daughter Sarah volunteers at an adult living facility, and 15-year-old Margarita tutors at a school in the same neighborhood where Weintraub once tutored as a teen-ager.
New Age Banking
South Florida has become a spawning ground for virtual banks and online lenders who say they will change the way Americans handle their finances. Online lenders can win customers by offering ease of shopping, lower costs and fewer people with which to deal. Virtual banks have a tougher sell. Most people want a branch handy if they feel the need to use it, says Forrester Research's Brook Newcombe. But branches drive up costs. Forrester projects 18.5 million households will use online banking by 2003. The "vast, vast majority" of them will be using online extensions of brick-and-mortar banks, Newcombe says. Change comes slowly.
Mortgage.com
The established online, Florida-based lender with $2.9 billion in mortgages originated in 1999. The new Sunrise headquarters will employ 600. Most revenues come from banks, credit unions, builders, Realtors and others whose mortgage sites the company provides.
Founder: Seth Werner, 54, a U.S. history major and real estate veteran.
Milestones: Bunches, including the signing of Intuit's Quickenmortgage.com, Arvida, Prudential of Northern California and GMAC.
"We're just so far ahead of the pack," Werner says.
OnLoan.com
Launched in November, the Fort Lauderdale application service provider aimed for direct-to-consumer lending. Now its focus is the business-to-business niche by offering direct-through-affiliates -- banks, mortgage brokers and others.
Founders: Barney Danzansky and Scott Leon, both 31, who previously partnered in the mortgage and real estate business.
A reason to notice: Fort Lauderdale billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga's private company invested. OnLoan largely has dealt with Wayne Jr., Huizenga's son.
"The technology we're putting out just does more," Danzansky says.
BancoInternet.com
BancoInternet.com is a Miami-based financial "community" in Spanish, Portuguese and English for immigrants. Its virtual bank won't open until BI buys Orlando's Metro Savings Bank (See Central, Page 34). Expect quinceñera savings plans and other Hispanic-targeted products.
Movers: Former Bear Stearns analyst Santiago Piqué, 55, an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, is CFO, and 900-call industry player David Greenberg, 56, of Miami is chief operating officer.
"What we're trying to do is fill an information gap," Piqué says.
VirtualBank
The Palm Beach Gardens company was scheduled to open its online bank in April. No cash will be handled at the few Charles Schwab-like offices it plans because cash raises operating costs.
Founder: Rory Brown, 37, a former executive with West Palm Beach-based mortgage buyer Ocwen Financial. Investors include retired Miami Dolphin Dan Marino and Fort Lauderdale's BankAtlantic Bancorp.
Claimed edge: Other online banks outsource credit-card or other services while VirtualBank promises an all-in-one bank and customer service.