Businessman merges two kinds of green in new bank

Ken LaRoe doesn’t look, talk or act like a banker. A native of Eustis, a town of about 18,000 people in Lake County, he’s a blue collar, no-nonsense guy with a contrarian streak and healthy sense of wanderlust who started his career as a mechanic and thought he was destined for a career in the automotive industry — before a workplace mishap led him to enroll in community college. 

"I thought, 'You know, this is no way to make a living,'" LaRoe says. "'I can't imagine doing this when I'm 50.'"