Content area
Full Text
Mike Ross runs one of the largest banking operations in the region. But by any measure, Ross' path to the top local executive office for Regions Financial Corp., with $3.3 billion in assets, has been anything but predictable.
Along the way, Ross, 55, was cut from the Dallas Cowboys, dropped out of law school, taught at Villa Duchesne High School and co-founded Capital Bank & Trust.
Ross cut his teeth in banking at Mark Twain and later moved to Bank of St. Louis before helping launch Capital Bank in 1983. The bank was bought by Union Planters in 1995, and Ross remained the top executive for Union Planters in St. Louis even after the Memphis-based bank acquired Magna Group, a larger local rival to Capital Bank.
When Union Planters was in turn acquired by Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Financial last July, Regions kept Ross in charge of Missouri operations.
He sat down for an interview recently in his thirdfloor Clayton office overlooking Maryland Avenue.
When did you know you were going to be a banker?
Probably in high school at CBC. We had a student bank where we lent money to each other. If you had a big date for the weekend and you couldn't get the money from your parents, you had to get the money somewhere. After college I met with a cousin, Dillon Ross. Dillon ran Jefferson Bank and Trust. I wasn't sure then what I wanted to do. Dillon suggested the banking business. He said you'll see every kind of industry, every type of retail business; you'll see entrepreneurs, you'll see sales efforts. If you see all these different aspects of business, you'll find one you want to make a career of.
Why did a boy from CBC pick Oral Roberts University in Tulsa?
It started with a scholarship for basketball and baseball ... I'd never even heard of this place, but they sent...