A Really Young Buck

For someone who is not yet 30, Chris Rolle has had an inordinate amount of life-altering happenings come his way.

The most recent was being named a senior vice president and the top executive for Branch Banking & Trust's Sarasota division, which has about $515 million in deposits. The unit's 65 employees that are spread across 11 branches in the county now report to Rolle, pronounced like the city in North Carolina.

A Tampa native, Rolle reports to Scott Greer, who was recently named president of BB&T's new Sarasota-based Southwest Florida region. That region, a result of BB&T's Aug. 14 regulatory-induced purchase of Colonial Bank, is comprised of Charlotte, Collier, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota counties. The region has about $2.1 billion in deposits.

“It's unusual that Chris has reached this position so young, but I'm confident he's got what it takes,” says Greer. “He has a mature and seasoned way of looking at things.”

It's a big step for Greer and Rolle, considering the region's other area chiefs are well over 30 years old and the pair in Lee and Collier counties is well over 40.

The Colonial acquisition also marks a big step for Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T, as the $165.3 billion-asset bank now has $14 billion in deposits and 300 branches in Florida.

National and regional executives, however, still say the bank plans to continue its mission of serving as a community-style bank with national resources.

Indeed, Greer is one of 37 regional presidents and Rolle is one of a few hundred BB&T county executives that are given local autonomy to make loan and client decisions. Only the biggest of deals gets sent to the mother ship in Winston-Salem for approval.

It's a somewhat unique approach to big regional banking, at least from an individual management perspective, and Rolle realizes his opportunity at such a young age is also pretty unique. “I'm excited to be in this market,” says Rolle. “I think the next five years are going to be very bright.”

But being named to his new position was just the latest on a list of watershed events for Rolle.

First and foremost was the day in 2000, when his father, an Orlando health care attorney, died of a heart attack. Rolle was a sophomore at Wake Forest University the day his 48-year-old dad died.

Rolle says his father's sudden death forced him to grow up faster than most of his peers. He stayed in college, though, and the next year was life-altering event number two: Rolle, a star quarterback for the Hillsborough High School football team, was named a starter for the Demon Deacons football team.

Only Rolle was named as the team's starting punter, not its starting quarterback.

Rolle had done some punting in high school and Wake Forest head coach Jim Caldwell — now head coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts — told Rolle that punting was the only way he was going to get on the field, as the team had several other talented quarterbacks.

The switch taught Rolle several valuable business and life lessons, from humility to persistence to the leadership value of maximizing each individual's talent.

Rolle witnessed Caldwell and the assistant coaches make several decisions with distinct parallels to managing a business. “I looked up to those guys,” says Rolle. “I thought of them as great CEOs.”

Rolle took that passion he learned for executing a well thought out strategy from the football field to the bank. First, while at Wake Forest, Rolle was accepted into BB&T's prestigious leadership program run in conjunction with the school.

After graduating from that program, Rolle was sent to BB&T's division in Frederick, Md., where he worked in commercial loans. He quickly built a business book that ranged from clients with $500,000 in annual revenues to $90 million companies. Just like he did with football, Rolle took on any task he thought would help him get better. “I did all the stuff no one else wanted to do,” says Rolle.

Rolle was actually so successful that by the time he was 26 he was appointed to run BB&T's division in Carroll County, Md., outside Baltimore. His success there directly led to him being considered for the Sarasota County position, says Greer.

At each stop of his short career so far, Rolle says his age hasn't been much of a factor. “I've been very fortunate,” says Rolle. “I've always looked older than my age.”

— Mark Gordon