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Robert Blakley

New Position: President, CEO, Freedom Bank of America, St. Petersburg. Previous Position: President, CEO, Mercantile Bank, St. Petersburg

By Times Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2005

Opening and operating a new bank can be like working with your family.

That's the message from Robert Blakley, founder, president and chief executive of Freedom Bank of America, which began business April 4. The bank's executives and all 18 employees were handpicked, Blakley said. All are former business associates and employees.

"My role as president and chief executive officer obviously is to direct the activities and create, if you will, our culture, our philosophy on how we do business," Blakley said. "It's pretty simple in community banking - be the best at providing personal service to your customer. That's what a community bank is all about."

Freedom Bank has its business offices in a temporary facility at 4200 Fourth St. N and its banking facility nearly 20 blocks away at 2300 Fourth St. N. A new 8,800-square-foot facility is under construction at 1200 Fourth St. N, scheduled for completion in May, Blakley said. Plans call for another office building at 9700 Fourth St. N, with an opening projected in August.

"Typically, community banks are getting their business from larger banks," he said. "Typically, our business comes from people who are dissatisfied with bigger banks. It's rare we get customers from another community bank."

A native of Clearwater, Blakley graduated from Clearwater High School in 1966. He served four years in the Air Force, from 1968 to 1972, and later earned an associate's degree from St. Petersburg Junior College in 1978. After that, Blakley studied business at the University of South Florida.

He also started his banking career in 1978 as a management trainee with Southeast Bank in Largo. After five years, Blakley left Southeast to join Pioneer Bank, then returned to Southeast Bank in 1989. He joined Mercantile Bank in 1991 as senior vice president and senior leader and left Mercantile as president, chief executive and member of the board of directors in 2002.

For the next 21/2 years, Blakley honored a noncompete provision and planned his own community bank, he said.

Why banking? "I just like the financial management and the financial aspects of the business," Blakley said. "I was always interested in accounting and (in) business. I like to form relationships," he said. "My personality was not one to sit in a cubicle and crunch numbers.

"Every day, we're getting new customers (and) I know most of the customers," he added. "I give my direct line to everybody. I talk to everyone. I answer my own phone. People can literally pick up the phone and talk to a live person."

Blakley has been involved with the Pinellas County Education Foundation, a program for low-income students in Pinellas County. He said he has been mentoring the same student, now in the ninth grade, for the past six years.

Blakley, 56, and his wife, Karen, live in Seminole. They have three adult children.

In his spare time, Blakley said he likes to play golf. He and his wife also like to travel, he said, usually taking at least two cruises a year.

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 21:23:02]