Just a glance at Harlan Parrish’s resume finds an impressive list of volunteer experience: current chairman of the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools, longtime involvement in the United Way, executive council membership for Florida Gulf Coast University’s economic and finance department. At times, he’s served on six or seven boards at once.
Impressive, but it’s not about the resume. As he tells his younger colleagues at FineMark National Bank and Trust, where he’s the Lee County president, volunteering isn’t a career booster. It’s about making the place you live in better. “Find something you’re passionate about,” he tells them. “And don’t just serve, take on a leadership position.”
The Alabama native has lived on and off in Southwest Florida for more than 20 years along with his wife, Kristi, and two children, Drew and Elise. As he rose in the ranks of the local banking industry, his reputation grew as someone who was willing to lend his leadership to help nonprofits flourish. “We live here and we work here; we want to make this place a great place for everybody to live and work,” he says.
He did leave briefly to serve as a CEO of an Alabama-based bank. But after four years, he was lured back to Florida in 2015 to join FineMark, where he has been since. FineMark president Joe Catti played a big role in tempting him to return, but it also had a lot do to with the three Ws of Southwest Florida, he says: “weather, water and the way of life.”
All this time, he’s been especially committed to the Lee schools foundation, joining shortly after arriving in the area in the late ’90s and even staying involved while he was living back in Alabama. He also serves as a mentor with the foundation’s Take Stock in Children program. His passion for education starts with his father, a U.S. Air Force veteran who took night classes to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Parrish himself worked multiple jobs to put himself through college at Auburn University. “My parents said, ‘The only place where ‘success’ comes before ‘work’ is the dictionary.’” —J.P.