Introduction
Lisa Simington has more than 30 years' experience in financial services, including time with both Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining PNC in June, she spent 10 years at BNY Mellon Wealth Management in its west and central Florida regional offices, most recently as regional president. At PNC, she is responsible for both Wealth Management, the company's high net worth business, and Hawthorn Family Office, for ultra high net worth clients, in nine markets across Florida. She oversees ongoing prospecting and client service efforts for both businesses, while managing teams with expertise spanning the wealth continuum across the state.
Years in St. Pete
I moved to Tampa Bay in 2008.
Organizations involved in
I have the privilege of participating in several great organizations throughout the western Florida area. My interests are largely focused on education, arts and healthcare. I currently serve on the board and as the chair for Earn to Learn Florida. That organization is focused on helping to close the funding gap for affordable education for low and moderate income families. It’s nice when your personal interests align with your corporate interests, as the PNC Foundation is also very focused on early childhood learning and we’ve been able to match the two organizations together. That’s helped to close the funding gap. I also serve on the Muma College of Business Advisory Council board and from an arts perspective, the board of trustees for the Straz Center for Performing Arts and the Tampa Museum of Art.
What gets you out of bed every day?
Life. I really enjoy what I’m doing professionally. I also am blessed on a personal basis with a beautiful family. I work with a talented, energetic team of colleagues who truly enjoy helping our clients work on achieving their financial goals. It’s gratifying to be part of PNC Wealth Management. I feel like we’re uniquely designed to be able to address the financial needs of our high net worth clients, particularly when you think about the new virtual environment we find ourselves in. The ability to use technology to continue to deliver advice and solutions in the same way we have before but now through the use of technology and not skipping a beat on our business and ability to service our clients has been a wonderful thing to see this year.
Why St. Pete?
The Tampa Bay region is a beautiful area. My husband and I are great outdoors people. We love doing everything outside. We’re big water people. The Tampa Bay region is a wonderful business community. The ability to both live here and work here has been a tremendous benefit for both of us. The economy has an entrepreneurial spirit, with a diverse industry mix. You’ve got the arts, you’ve got beaches, you have a dynamic business community, so what’s not to like about living in the St. Pete-Tampa area?
What is one habit that you keep?
My love of outdoors. It’s important to have downtime to rejuvenate and refresh ourselves and we’re fortunate to live and work in this great community, surrounded by great waterways, golf courses. My husband I really enjoy biking, and one of our favorite bike trails is the North Bay Trail in downtown St. Pete. We take it often and we love it because there’s beautiful landscape and you get good exercise.
Who are some people that influence you?
There are quite a few, but one that comes to mind is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I’ve always admired her tenacity, her leadership in the face of adversity and hardship. She really set an example for women. We owe her a great deal of gratitude, having served on the federal bench for over 40 years fighting for equal rights for all of us. The ability to lead like she did and have great influence is something that I hope I could carry and do that.
What is one piece of insight - a book, methodology, practice - that you would share with our readers?
One of my recent re-reads is the book called “Hit Refresh.” It’s the story of Microsoft’s current CEO. He started from very humble beginnings and went on to become the third CEO of Microsoft. I love the stories he tells in the book around the transformation of Microsoft and the leadership principles he led by. One of the most notable quotes in the book is “A leader’s job is to find the rose petals in a field of manure.” I think that speaks volumes. To me it means when you are in a position of authority, your job no longer is to complain or talk around the water cooler, but. rather to listen and be the voice of ideas, change and solutions. I think any leader that can embody that can make tremendous change and would be able to lead with empathy and passion.
What is one thing you wish you knew about your work 3 years ago?
Certainly this pandemic and 2020 has changed business forever on so many different levels. I joined our company in this virtual environment and we as a company already have invested over $2 billion, even before the pandemic, to improve our technology and to continue to invest and help find new ways of doing business. If I knew that three years ago, I’d probably be more adept at technology than I am today, but thinking about that as we continue to evolve will be critical for all businesses, and certainly financial services.
What’s next?
From the Florida perspective at PNC, it’s about growth. There are so many things that we have seen happen and probably the most notable is continued population growth. Residents of high-density cities continue to move to Florida so we as a firm are continuing to strategize around how we can be a very helpful resources for those new residents. It represents a big opportunity for us. What’s next is trying to be very defined about how we will continue to cultivate that part of our business. We don’t expect that to change anytime for Florida. We will continue to see residents come in and as long as we have a favorable tax environment in the state, it will allow us opportunities to grow. Also, we just announced the acquisition of BBVA, which gives PNC a huge opportunity to become a national franchise in banking and also has a direct impact for Florida in that we do have a lot of overlap markets. It’s another important strategy as we think about what’s next is the assimilation of those new colleagues into our business here.
