Sheldon T. Anderson

Sheldon T. Anderson is Chairman and CEO of Grove Bank & Trust. With a distinguished career that spans decades, Anderson has become a pillar of both the banking industry and the South Florida community.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Decision makers, innovators, game meet the minds behind South Florida's
biggest companies. This is CEOs You Should Know News Radio
six ten WoT.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to our CEOs You Should Know series. Joining us
today is Grove Bank and Trust Chair Sheldon Anderson. Thank
you so much for being here. So first and tell
me a little bit about Grove Bank and Trust and
its mission.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Grove Bank and Trust has been around in Cocona Grove
since nineteen twenty six. Next July we celebrate our one
hundredth anniversary as an ongoing concern. The special part about
that is we continue to service families and companies that

(00:45):
have been doing business with the bank almost from its founding,
so it's several generations. That's very special. What we are
is a committed community bank. We have regular private banking business,
we have commercial banking, we have wealth management. But more importantly,

(01:09):
we're there to serve our clients who are in the community.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
You mentioned grove. It's in the name. Coconut Grove, South
Florida is a very special place. So how does it
shape the organization's mission and values.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Well, Coconut Grove has become a very hot property. It's
always been special. When I was a kid growing up here,
Coconut Grove was more of an artist's colony and it
was really cool. But from the standpoint of being a

(01:41):
business center, it wasn't. Today one hundred years later, there
are people who are dying to move to live in
play in Coconut Grove. It's to become a very very
hot market restaurant. It's walkable, it's safe, it's near the water,

(02:05):
and it's just a nice place to be. So it's
attracting an awful lot of attention in South Florida.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Does that change then how you market to clients?

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yes? I think what it does for us is service
is a paramount concern of our to our clients. Because
mini banks continue to grow and expand and open branches
and attempt to get more and more clients, we continue

(02:39):
to focus on the basics, and that's our clients. That's
making sure that their needs are met, that we know
who they are, they know who we are, and that
we provide the service that they that they need and
that they expect. That makes us different.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Inspired to take on the role of chair of Grove
Bank and Trust and how has that been rewarding to you?

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Well? I knew the owners of the company very well
because I've served them in my former position in another bank,
and so when they were in the market for a
new head of the company, I was approached. It was

(03:27):
only a few years after I had retired, and I
decided that I'd consider it because I knew the people,
I knew the owners, I knew many of the people
who work at the bank, and I thought that I
could make a difference. And it's been a very very
special opportunity for me, an unexpected opportunity for me.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
What's been the most rewarding thing about joining the organization
the people.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
The quality you know company and is only as good
as the quality of it's people. And we have built
and continue to build a very strong client focused organization
that really is that really puts our clients at the
center of everything we do. And to have that opportunity

(04:19):
to do it now and at this time of my
life is really really special.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
You mentioned how the business environment keeps changing. How do
you personally define success?

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I define success by knowing that I do the right thing,
that I do the right thing for the right reasons,
that I develop the people around me so that at
the end of the day because we've worked together. They

(04:55):
feel that there was a reason, and there was a
there was a special reason that we work together. As
you can see, I'm really focused on people and that's
that's really my motivation.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Speaking of the motivation of working with people. Why is
philanthropy and community engagement so important? As a leader of
Grove Bank.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
And Trust, It's who I am, and it's and over
time is what I became. Miami is a beautiful, beautiful
city with untold wealth, but with an awful lot of poverty.
There are lots of people who are struggling to make

(05:38):
it and those people are very important. If they're not
doing well, eventually we won't do well. So that's my
motivation giving back to the people that some people that
I will probably never meet, but the important thing is

(06:03):
whether we meet or not. Somehow we were working to
make their lives a little easier.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Getting back to the community. Give Miami Day as one
of South Florida's largest days of philanthropy, and you're a
champion of it? Why I am?

Speaker 3 (06:18):
And I think I'm a champion of it because it
touches the lives of many, many, many people. Last year
was a banner year Forgive Miami Day, we had over
fifty thousand donors and over one hundred thousand unique gifts

(06:41):
that came about because of philanthropy. That is incredible. It's
the day of the year where everybody can be a philanthropist.
The average gifts that's made during that week is about
one hundred dollars, but if you multiply that by huge numbers,

(07:05):
the impact on the community is amazing.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
How is your bank participating in Give Miami Day?

Speaker 3 (07:10):
All right, Well, they make me available for First of all,
we encourage our employees to give. We match contributions. My
wife and I make a personal gift to the foundation
on an annual basis to help to defer the costs

(07:32):
of putting on Give Miami Day. It's not a cheap enterprise,
but it's so worth it. When I participate during Give
Miami Day all the activities and we watch the ticker
tape that goes by telling us how much has been
raised and how many donations and how many donors. That

(07:54):
is really really exciting to me.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
How does it make you feel watching those numbers constantly
going up and know that you're playing a major role
in it.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well, watching the faces of the people in the room
tells the whole story, their cheers, their chance. I mean,
it's amazing and it's what we should do. We should
be We're privileged to have the opportunity to participate, and
I think that's our focus. We want everybody to engage

(08:25):
in this because it's the one time that we can
all get together to make sure that everybody in Miami
Dade County has the ability and the opportunity to thrive.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
You mentioned it's about the cumulative. It's places like your
bank that helps with matching funds, and it's one day
and it's every little bit helps.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
That's right. It's one day. But November twenty first, we
will start planning for give Miami Day twenty twenty six.
It never stops.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
What advice do you give to somebody aspiring to become
a chair or a CEO, Be careful.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
What you wish for. With that comes an awful lot
of responsibility. So I would say, if you're interested, be
committed to doing the right thing, Be committed to do it,
Do things for the right reasons, don't do it out

(09:21):
of fear, and develop the people that you're working with,
because only we are only as good as the people.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Who work with us, and make sure you think of everybody.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Absolutely think three traits.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
You believe every leader should possess.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Integrity, the ability to leave everything on the field at
the end of a game and be ready to start
all over again tomorrow. That is that's the mark of
a successful leader.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Any other message you want to leave with our.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Listeners, remember those who don't have a voice, and to
the extent that you can help that give someone you
love a voice.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Sheldon, thank you so much for being part of our
CEOs You Should Know series. That was Sheldon Anderson, the
chair of Grove Bank and Trust.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Thanks for listening to South Florida's CEOs You Should Know.
News Radio six' ten WIO d