Q&A with Fernando “Fred” Zago, Senior Vice President and Manager, Greater Southern California Region, California Bank & Trust
Your first day working for California Bank & Trust was unusual, wasn’t it?
I started my job with CB&T on March 16, 2020. I reported to the Irvine office for onboarding and almost immediately, I saw people packing up their laptops and putting their belongings in boxes. By 2 p.m., as a statewide lockdown was declared because of the pandemic, the office became a ghost town. I didn’t meet my team in person until the summer of 2020. That winter, we locked down again. It stayed that way for the next two years.
That certainly can make a new job especially challenging. What does your job entail?
I oversee 13 bank branches and a business banking unit with 14 direct reports who manage about 90 associates. My job is a mix of interacting with my team, clients and business partners such as wealth advisors and treasury management bankers. I love supporting my team. I always want to make sure my team gets the proper training and information. My goal is to make their lives and their jobs easier. At the end of the day, what I do should benefit them.
Tell us about your mindset on giving back. How did it develop and why is it so important to you?
Giving back simply means deciding what matters to you and then figuring out ways to lend support—which doesn’t always involve money. It can be packing bags of food at a local food bank, mentoring a young adult, or painting a home for an elderly couple.
Growing up in a first-generation, immigrant family from Puebla, Mexico, made me realize that, sometimes, we all need help navigating different situations. My parents could have asked for help on many occasions early on, but they didn’t want to. At times, this made it more difficult for me and my sisters.
When those in need ask for help, it’s important that others who can help, do. Hillary Clinton famously said, “It takes a village.” It takes a village to maintain a healthy and progressing society. Those in need should be able to count on others who are in a position to help.
What causes are you most drawn to?
I’m most interested in education and helping women in need. Teaching financial literacy has also been a focus for me.
I was so gratified one day when I was at a teller window and noticed a customer looking at me from the next window. It turned out this man had been to one of my seminars about preparing to buy your first home. He told me that what he learned from me enabled him to close escrow on his first home. “You made that possible,” he told me. That’s one of the reasons I’m attracted to banking— because we can make a difference in people’s lives.
Another cause that’s important to me is WISEPlace, a nonprofit in Santa Ana that helps support unaccompanied women who have no family or friends to lean on. Many of them are experiencing homelessness, so we connect them with shelter and resources for food and clothing.
If you could offer one piece of career advice, what would it be?
Always follow through with your commitments. Vow to under promise and over deliver.