New values-based bank names two new executives, including CFO

ST. PETERSBURG — Climate First Bank, a values-based community lender being formed in St. Petersburg for a June opening, has added a pair of key executives to its leadership team.

Michele Glorie has been named the bank’s CFO and COO, while Valarie Nussbaum-Harris has been appointed executive vice president of the bank’s Tampa Bay region and a government guaranteed lending executive.

Glorie has more than 22 years of experience working with Florida community banks, including Enterprise Bank of Florida and Harbor Community Bank. At Harbor Community, where she worked as director of operations, she assisted with eight acquisitions and grew its total assets within a seven-year period from $50 million to more than $2.2 billion, according to a statement. 

“In my role as CFO and COO, I look forward to executing Climate First Bank’s vision in becoming the largest and most profitable values-based financial institution in the Southeast,” says Glorie, also one of six founding directors at Climate First Bank, in the statement. 

Nussbaum-Harris has more than three decades of banking experience in the Tampa Bay area. Prior to joining Climate First Bank, Nussbaum-Harris held executive positions at Bank of America, Regions Bank, SouthTrust Bank and Freedom Bank. “I’m ready to work with Climate First Bank to transform traditional banking into a values-based model that didn’t exist before,” says Nussbaum-Harris in the statement.

Glorie and Nussbaum-Harris’ appointments come on the heels of an announcement last month that Edmund O’Carroll and Brian Kruse had joined Climate First, as executive vice president and senior loan officer and vice president, branch manager and a small business lender, respectively.

Climate First, which has raised $23 million thus far toward its operations, will offer traditional banking services as well as placing a special emphasis on non-governmental organizations (NGO) and businesses committed to sustainability.

The bank contends it will be the “nation’s first environmentally conscious bank” with a “mission is to support communities and local businesses while also moving the needle to reverse the current climate crisis” by encouraging green infrastructure and promoting sustainable business practices.