By Debra Gelbart
At the age of 18, Gil Kennedy couldn’t have known enlisting in the U.S. Navy would pave the way for a career in banking, and helping veterans and active duty and reserve service members access a variety of financial services. Perhaps because his military career didn’t include accounting, finance or business management. He originally enlisted to be an electrician.“I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school, but I knew I wanted to do something productive,” says Kennedy, a native of the Central Valley. “And my dad and grandfather had been in the service, so it was a natural step for me.”
While training to be an electrician, he heard about an opportunity to become a special warfare combat crewman with special boat teams. “I was super interested, so I went through schooling for that and was deployed to Special Boat Team 12 in Panama, where I supported drug interdiction efforts in Central and South America,” says Kennedy, who spent the majority of his 20s fighting the flow of narcotics into the U.S.He did similar duties in Southeast Asia and Guam, in addition to working with what’s called foreign internal defense and partnering with local military to reinforce U.S. policy and protection. Kennedy was one of about 400 servicemen trained to do this type of work around the world.
Transition to banking
Although he enjoyed what he was doing, it was becoming physically taxing and Kennedy decided to leave the military in 2000. Soon after, he took a civilian job in a management training program at a bank in the San Diego area, where he spent 19 years. He also graduated with a degree in legal studies from National University in San Diego.
In 2020, Kennedy joined California Bank & Trust (CB&T) as a business center manager in downtown San Diego. “The core of my work as a banker is teaching financial literacy,” he says. “A big part of banking is helping people and educating them about financial products and how to manage their money. The lean toward helping veterans for me is the brotherhood and sisterhood of the service. We do have a common bond from having served.”
Working with veterans has been Kennedy’s focus for the last 25 years. “It kind of ‘fills my bucket’ knowing that I’m giving back to a community I once served, and to assist service men and women with the transition to civilian life. For me, one of the hardest times in my life was going from being in the military to not being in the military.”
In his current role as vice president and business center manager, Kennedy helps military vets and historically marginalized people access credit offerings and other banking products. One of the newest products CB&T offers is called Military Advantage Checking, introduced at the end of June. For veterans, “this can be an ideal checking account for them and their families,” Kennedy says.
This product joins the long-established CB&T military business loan program—geared to veterans who are entrepreneurs and small-business owners—as another service to help veterans with their personal and business financial needs. And for Kennedy, it’s another reminder that he is in the right pace, doing the right work.
“When you can find a way to talk to someone about their experience in the service and about who they are as a result, it’s really special,” he says. “We recognize the hardships they’ve encountered and may still be encountering. My job allows me to better connect with someone with this background. And I’m able to say to them, ‘We have you, in this new endeavor and with this new product. Being able to introduce active-duty personnel and veterans to a special checking account intended just for them, as well as our specialized lending program, is an honor.”