Right Place

Sean McHale is fond of telling his four kids, ages 16 to 22, that they should never learn something at the expense of learning how to learn.

His point: Don't just Google something for the quick fact, but figure out and embrace the discovery process. It's a lesson McHale learned when he worked in finance for AT&T in the 1980s, for a boss who had a Ph.D. in economics.

McHale's department, in AT&T's New Jersey corporate headquarters, worked on a variety of sophisticated financial projects. McHale learned even more because he took night classes at Rutgers University for his M.B.A. while he was at AT&T. “If you were in finance, working for AT&T back then was an awful nice career,” McHale says. “It was a laboratory for finance.”

A Buffalo, N.Y., native, McHale has since turned to banking for a career. His latest post, president of SunTrust Bank's Sarasota division, will be another learning curve.

That's because McHale, in addition to running the local division of the bank and its private wealth management department, also replaces Margaret Callihan. Callihan, who ran the bank's Southwest Florida region since 2005, recently moved to Fort Lauderdale to run another division for Atlanta-based SunTrust. But she left a big mark on the Sarasota-Bradenton area, especially in community involvement.

Here's a glance at McHale's career:

Factory floor: McHale's first job in banking was with M&T Bank in Buffalo. He started in the commercial loan department — training ground for many young bankers. Commercial loans in Buffalo in the 1990s focused mostly on industrial and manufacturing businesses, and that's where he spent a bulk of his time. Says McHale: “I worked with people who wore eye goggles and hardhats.”

Tour guide: McHale sought a change of scenery after eight years at M&T Bank. So anytime he was on vacation or away for business, he checked out other areas, from Phoenix to San Francisco to Florida. Sometimes he would get in a cab in a city and ask the driver to talk and drive, so he could hear about the town and see it. He would look for construction cranes, the surest sign of a growing community.

Going south: SunTrust hired McHale in 1997. Jut like in Buffalo, McHale began in commercial loans, only it was in Tampa, where the businesses he worked with were mostly staffing firms and call centers. He pursued a job with SunTrust, a bank he believed was successful at being big while keeping a local feel. “These are people (at SunTrust) who built a bank in the right markets,” he says. “The results show it.”

Good times: McHale moved into wealth management in 2002, a rollicking time to get in that part of banking. The Tampa market was flush with capital. “That was a money-in-motion location,” McHale says. “Wealth was being created, and that's when advisers can do very well.” McHale moved to Sarasota in 2008 to run the local division's private wealth management department.

Regulation parade: McHale doesn't jump into the criticize-regulations parade like many of his peers, though he does fear the new banking industry rules will come at a price — to everyone. “When there are more regulations,” he says, “the cost of doing business goes up.” He says since the rules in many respects are still being written there are opportunities for banks to adjust and find a way to succeed. Says McHale: “You have to keep balance and perspective in mind.”

Book it: McHale is an avid reader. For a while he was into history and biographies, and he still is, but lately he's gone back to reading classic novels, like "The Great Gatsby." He's currently reading "Les Miserables" and "Dead Souls"by Nikolai Gogol, a famous 19th century Russian literature book. Sometimes McHale reads on his iPad and sometimes he reads print books. McHale also recently got into audio books, which he says help him pass the time on the road. The two most recent audio books he listened to were “Anna Karenina” and “Too Big to Fail.”