Sean Cummings moved to Jacksonville in June 2019 to join VyStar Credit Union as vice president of sales and service. He brought 25 years of financial services experience, most recently with Bank of America. VyStar announced in December that he was promoted to senior vice president and market president of North Florida.
I was born and raised in the Seattle area.
I graduated high school at 17, went into the U.S. Army for four years, got top secret security clearance and went to work in Seoul, South Korea, for 2½ years.
I worked in Command Center Seoul, four stories underground. It was a really cool experience.
I was in a place where I worked with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. The military makes you grow up quickly, teaching you a lot of discipline.
You have the opportunity at an early age to work with people of all backgrounds across the country.
While I was at Seattle University, I bartended and waited tables at The Keg, a high-end steak and seafood house.
It really taught me the power of connecting with people, building trust, finding common ground and making the experience fun, which resonates and carries over to what I do today.
After graduating, I fell into a teller position at Bank of America, then decided to start my MBA program while working there.
I found I loved working with people and it stuck.
After a couple of promotions and five years at Bank of America, I worked at U.S. Bank for a couple of years and found my way through friends to Washington Mutual Bank, which then became JPMorgan Chase.
I worked there for 15 years and then returned to Bank of America as a region executive and led and supported over 100 branches in the Pacific Northwest.
The opportunity came up with VyStar to come on board and be vice president of sales and service.
When you have Uber drivers trying to sell you on VyStar, it just validates that I made a good decision.
It’s been the best 2½ years of my life. I love the culture, I love the senior leadership.
It’s truly one team with partners across the entire organization.
I’m responsible for the North Florida market, which consists of 50 branches.
I lead and support five regional vice presidents, and we have roughly 500 branch employees.
We’re putting our actions where our beliefs are and we feel a deep obligation to help not just the city of Jacksonville but the surrounding areas.
Downtown, there’s the revitalization of the tower, adjacent building and the breezeway.
There are new restaurants and an additional parking garage.
It’s really cool to see the food trucks and the bands.
We support the Jax River Jams.
There’s more to come.
I have a very active 15-year-old who is into basketball and baseball.
I just love building our family vacations and supporting his academics and love for sports.
We go to the beach, do a little boogie boarding and throw the football around.
I have made a commitment to golf this year.
You can’t complain about the weather in Florida.
