In play

South Florida CEO, Feb, 2004

JAY PELHAM

"Private banking is a segment of the financial services industry where you do not compete as much with product and price as you do in service. I would rather have a top private banker with a limited product array than an elaborate product array and a mediocre banker."

The Player: Banker Jay Pelham, 39

Latest Play: Hired by BankUnited as senior vice president in charge of its private banking division.

Background: A certified financial planner, Pelham has spent the last 15 years with SunTrust Bank, where current BankUnited president Ramiro Ortiz was president for Miami-Dade. Pelham spent the first 10 years with SunTrust on the commercial side and the last five in retail and private banking; for the past two years he has run private banking for the South Florida region.

Ambition: "To have the top private banking team in the South Florida banking market," says Pelham. With it, he plans to radically expand BankUnited's relatively small private banking department by leveraging the bank's relationship with growing businesses and young professionals as they increase their wealth.

CHRISTOPHER POLLOCK

"Networking is very important, but this chamber should be an advocate, a stimulator of business. We're going to make changes in how we do business."

The Player: Christopher Pollock, 48

Latest Play: Hired as president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce

Background: The Broward native began his career in Fort Lauderdale's hospitality industry, then moved around the Americas in various posts for the Renaissance hotel chain. In 2000 Pollock became general manager of the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Hotel, leaving two years later to become president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Lodging and Hospitality Association. "I grew up here, and intend to stay here for the rest of my life, so I wanted to get very involved in the community," Pollock says. Among his first initiatives for the association was to start Friends of the Airport, which rallied Broward businesses in support of expanding the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Ambition: To make the chamber a place where all of the county's industries can work together, and to be a strong, activist voice for them. "This chamber needs to support issues like the airport, beach re-nourishment, the issues of development and redevelopment," says Pollock. "We need to be at the table in those discussions."