Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa U.S. Trust President, Miami Brief bio: 50, born and raised in Miami Beach. Five years in corporate lending after returning to Miami from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management, in Arizona in 1978 with an MBA. Wealth management ever since. "I've grown up with the international banking community." At one time, Sevilla-Sacasa managed Citigroup's global wealth structuring business, European private bank and Latin American private bank.

International Bent

Currently: President, U.S. Trust, since November. She oversees 32 offices, 2,337 employees and $108 billion in assets under management at the Charles Schwab subsidiary.

Languages: Spanish from family; French from school and as a student abroad for a couple of years in France and Switzerland; Portuguese from graduate school.

Summers growing up: With relatives in Spain. All four grandparents were Spanish, and her mother was born in Cuba of Spanish heritage.

Favorite European city: "I'm biased toward Barcelona. My heritage is from that area."

Coming in April: A sixth Florida office for U.S. Trust -- on Brickell Avenue in Miami. There's a temporary office now.

At year-end: A two-week family vacation to India.

On hiring: "The first thing I look at is character. In our industry you can have the best products, the best services, the best platform, but if you don't have the best people to deliver that to the clients and to establish that relationship with the client, you'll get nowhere."

Her family: "To be able to raise three fine young men and women who will be happy and who will be able to make a difference will be my greatest accomplishment."

Full Plate

Edward P. "Ned" Grace III

Grace Venture Partners
Managing director
Orlando

Among his holdings: WiDeFi, Melbourne, Xtender wireless networking; Alinean, Orlando, software that analyzes the return on investment for IT investments; Xytrans, Orlando, passive radiometer maker and wireless communications; psiloQuest, Orlando, processing materials for semiconductors.

Pastimes: Skiing, with a second home in Beaver Creek, Colo. "Golf gives me a headache."

Restaurants he enjoys: The Palm at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando; Darden Restaurants' Seasons 52; Pei Wei Asian Diner.

Leaving Providence: "The big fish in the little pond scenario was frankly very old for me at that point. It was nice to move to an anonymous environment."

Edward P. "Ned" Grace III began his working career at a Connecticut country club as a caddy and 12-year-old dishwasher. "My mother said, 'You never did the dishes at home.' " He moved up in the field as he grew up -- to busboy, grill operator and other jobs, including working for a restaurant owner who had a home in Aspen, Colo. As a skier, Grace was motivated by the prospect of a Colorado home.

Grace eventually founded The Capital Grille restaurants and Bugaboo Creek Steak House chain, based in Providence, R.I., and sold them in 1996 to LongHorn Steakhouse, now Rare Hospitality International. That year, he moved to Florida and in 1999 started a venture capital fund, raising $20 million. The fund has holdings in Florida software, wireless, cultured diamond and radiometer companies. A separate fund he started, Grace Restaurant Partners, owns a stake in Not Your Average Joe's, a Massachusetts restaurant chain considering an expansion into Florida.

Venture capitalists at present are focused on companies with a "very clear, and I stress very clear, path" to being cash-flow positive, Grace says. "Without that, they are very allergic to new enterprises." Grace, 55, who got his second home in Colorado, likes good bets, too, but feels that as a business founder, he has a viewpoint distinct from many of his VC peers. "I've been there, starting from a dishwasher to building a $100-million public company."

Financial Lessons

Kim Ciccarelli Kantor
Ciccarelli Advisory Services
President
Naples

At the Ciccarelli home near Buffalo, N.Y., father Frank would ask a child who wanted to buy a bike, "Have you done your homework?" What was the price of the bike? If the child saved longer, might not a horse or a car be possible instead? Thus Frank Ciccarelli instructed his seven children in responsibility, recalls middle child Kim Ciccarelli Kantor.

Financial planner Frank Ciccarelli, who had his own firm and moved to Florida after retiring in his 40s, wound up creating a second generation of financial planners.

Kantor, based in Naples, and her brother, Raymond, based in Rochester, N.Y., began in the business in 1983 and founded Ciccarelli Advisory Services. The firm in 2004 won Florida's Family Small Business of the Year Award. That year, it also made Barron's "America's 100 Top Brokers" list based on performance. The firm has $700 million in assets under management.

Its specialty is the "total client picture," Kantor says, serving millionaire families overlooked or underserved by larger private banks and trusts. "From $1 million to $10 million net worth, who's servicing that?" asks Kantor, 49. "We want to take care of families."

Finding Value

Fatherly advice: "When you put on a client relationship, that's the most important thing you have. Service it and keep it, and your business will automatically grow."

Off time: "Good conversation, fine dining and family time."

Books: "Most of my reading, I hate to tell you, unless it's poetry, is related to business in one way or another. I can sit on a plane and read grueling technical stuff and have a great day."

The Fast Track

Sam Davis will head American Commerce Bank.

There are de novos -- new banks with usually around $15 million in startup capital -- and there are super de novos like 2002's U.S. Century Bank, with its then Florida-record $30 million in startup capital, and Great Florida Bank, with $60 million in 2004. Now there's a new record-holder aiming for a June opening in Tampa -- American Commerce Bank with $100 million.

Sam Davis II, 58, who once ran half of Florida for Barnett Bank, was tapped as president by Texas businessman Donald A. Adam, who is putting up $91 million of that $100 million. The statewide bank would serve commercial real estate customers, corporations, small businesses and professionals. The board is a who's who of the connected: Developers Mel Sembler in St. Petersburg, James Pugh Jr. in Orlando and Lee Arnold Jr. in Clearwater; Orlando consultant Dick Batchelor, Naples hospital and healthcare system President Dr. Allen Weiss; and University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft.

Three in the Pipeline

Twenty-five de novo bank applications were filed with the state in 2005. Here are the people behind three of the most recent:

C. Alan Renfroe, 54, president, CEO, Hometown Community Bank, Crestview. Has raised $15 million. Renfroe was CEO of First National Bank of Crestview.

Freddy G. Carr, 49, chairman, president, CEO, Destin First Bank. Aiming for $15 million to $18 million. Carr was executive VP of Destin Bank.

Brenda O'Neil, 53, chairwoman and CEO, Preferred Community Bank, Fort Myers. Wants to raise $9.5 million to $14 million. Was president, CEO, Premier Community Bank, Fort Myers.