Executive Session: Heidi Colgate-Tamblyn

Executive Session: Heidi Colgate-Tamblyn

President, SunTrust Bank of Lee County

PERSONAL

AGE: 45

FAMILY: Husband, Jack Tamblyn. Two adult stepchildren.

HOMETOWN: Los Angeles.

EDUCATION: B.S. in economics, University of California at Davis.

HOW DO YOU RELAX: "On a boat. We live on the water in south Fort Myers. We have a 22-foot open fisherman Mako."

DO YOU FISH: "I think I do. Others might disagree. It's kind of like my golf game. I think I golf."

BOOKS ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND: "I love Barbara Kingsolver. She writes a lot about the West. She has a lot of thought-provoking ideas and themes in her books. Right now, I'm reading the 'Steps of Seven Successful Women in Executive Management.' I like Discover magazine too."

WHAT RADIO STATION YOU LISTEN TO: "In the morning I listen to 94.5. It's classic rock. In the afternoon I listen to WGCU (public radio)."

FAVORITE ROCK BAND: R.E.M.

TV SHOW YOU'RE EMBARRASSED TO ADMIT YOU WATCH: Commander in Chief.

FIRST PAYING JOB: "I worked at a dry cleaners. I worked up front on the desk, and I bagged clothes that were clean."

CHARITIES YOU'RE INVOLVED WITH: "I'm on the board of the Ronald McDonald House of Southwest Florida and the grants committee of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation."

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

WHEN YOU GOT INTO BANKING: "I started in banking when I moved to Florida in 1989. I started as a management trainee for Citizens and Southern. I wrote several banking CEOs and sent them my resume. One of them sent my resume to the Citizens and Southern area president. He interviewed me, and I got the job."

WHAT YOU DID BEFORE BANKING: "I was a buyer for May Co. up in Hartford, Conn. I bought the housewares for their 13 stores in five states."

BANKS YOU'VE WORKED FOR: "Citizens and Southern became NationsBank. Then SunTrust tapped me in 1994 and asked me to be a regional manager in the North Fort Myers area. I worked through private banking, trust/new business, and I was a private banking regional manager. Fifth Third Bank approached me in late 2000 and said, 'We have a private banking group, and we want to expand and would you be interested in managing it for Florida.' I did that for four years and 10 months, and I rejoined SunTrust in November."

FAVORITE PART OF THE BUSINESS: "The clients. They're fascinating. Everybody has a story to tell. You kind of live vicariously through them. You work with them and ask them about their dreams and how you can help."

LEAST FAVORITE PART OF THE BUSINESS: "Writing reports."

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BANKER: "The ability to listen. If you can't listen, you'll not make a good banker."

COMPANY/ THE POSITION

IMMEDIATE CHALLENGES: "The first thing is making sure I meet everyone, because everybody has different personal dynamics. The very first thing I did was get together with the management team here in Lee County, which is retail, mortgage, commercial and wealth management, and come up with a plan for 2006. We meet on a monthly basis and see what direction we need to go as a team."

YOUR GOALS FOR 2006: "They haven't been finalized, but what I like about the dynamics for 2006 is that we have both financial and team goals. We are going to be given incentives to work with other team members, so we won't be cowboys out there. That's exciting to me. I haven't seen that in any incentive plan in the industry here. For instance, we have a customer who has a commercial business but doesn't have much of a personal banking relationship with us. So the commercial folks came to the wealth management team here and said, 'Let's look at what we can do for him personally.'"

-Jean Gruss