Long for Short

Befuddled glances were coming back to Tony Leo as fast as whiplash when he met with the board of a capital-starved Gulf Coast community bank earlier this fall.

Leo, standing before the directors of Englewood-based Peninsula Bank, was talking bank survival strategy. The board wanted to hear why it should make Leo its chief executive officer, a position it had been looking to fill since its longtime CEO and chairman Simon Portnoy retired in June.

A Sarasota resident who once ran the oversight and administration divisions of a $4 billion, 81-office bank in Pennsylvania, Leo came to the board as a highly recommended turnaround specialist. But there he was using words like growth plans, new customers, and future branding strategies — just as the $646 million asset bank was facing its greatest capital-shortage crisis ever.