Alvaro Martinez-Fonts, who heads JPMorgan Florida’s private bank, has a big job.
Not because the private bank manages about $20 billion in client assets in the state or because he’s looking to turn that figure into $100 billion over the next five years.
While most states in the country and grouped into regions, Florida stands alone.
“I think it was a nod and a testimony to the potential that we see in the state of Florida to create Florida as its own region,” Mr. Martinez-Fonts said in JPMorgan’s Biscayne Boulevard offices overlooking Miami Beach and Biscayne Bay. “California is not its own region but Florida is.”
He also sits on the firm’s executive committee, which brings together its top bankers who decide what products it will offer clients and how aggressively it pursued lending during the worst of the financial crisis.
Born in Cuba, Mr. Martinez-Fonts’ first job as a commodities trader took him halfway around the world to Hong Kong. More recently he headed JPMorgan’s private bank in Latin America.
And now the pressure to plant the JPMorgan flag in one of the nation’s wealthiest state’s is on.
Though long-term asset growth is the ultimate goal, Mr. Martinez-Fonts said his most important daily work is staffing up the private bank’s Florida operations properly and finding the most effective way to have a positive impact on the community.
He was interviewed by Miami Today staff writer Zachary S. Fagenson.