TEN years after joining PanCaribbean, Phillip W Armstrong has made it to the top and is now in a position to influence, design and implement major strategies at the company. He has been appointed managing director of PanCaribbean Bank (PCB) and is a member of the board of PanCaribbean Financial Group (PCFG), of which the bank is a subsidiary.

His impressive rise in the field of banking over the last decade is not what the Campion College alum — who seemed headed for a career in aviation after graduating with a bachelors degree in avionics technology from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, USA in 1988 — had planned.

But after quickly summing up the direction in which the aviation industry was headed back then, Armstrong turned to banking and finance and headed straight for the top.

“When I graduated from university with a degree in avionics, two of the world’s biggest airlines went bankrupt within 12 months. I asked myself what do I think this industry will look like in 2000 and where would I be in my career. My conclusion: aviation will always be unstable. It turns out that aviation continues to be very cyclical and as such I made a good decision,” he tells Career and Education.

“Honestly, at the time, penny stocks were hot; everyone wanted a piece,” Armstrong puts it. “So I pursued what was interesting to me — stockbroking.”

The young Armstrong took to banking and after working with SociétéGénérale (a French Bank) in New York as an equity options trader, he headed home to Jamaica and joined Citibank, where he held various positions before joining PanCaribbean in December 2002.

Now that he is a member of the PCFG board, Armstrong does not foresee any radical differences in his day-to-day job as managing director.

“I do not see my role in the bank (or the group) changing. So, my focus will continue to be what it has always been: to build a very successful commercial bank, one that our team will be proud of and one that our customers will love”, he states confidently.

“My sole responsibility as the managing director of PCB is to execute the strategy of the bank. This day-to-day role requires that I collaborate frequently with the president of PCFS, Donovan Perkins. Of course, these regular interactions ensure that we provide each other with complementary perspectives of the environment in which we both operate,” he says.

One might say Phillip Armstrong was being groomed for his new role over the past few years, having been a director of PCB in 2004 and having attended PCFS board meetings by invitation for the past 18 months. But it has not come without hard work and the PanCaribbean boss is convinced that his new appointment is the fruit of his role in conceptualising and implementing successful corporate strategies.

“The key to my success is one word: perseverance. It is crucial to set goals and pursue them, never taking ‘no’ for an answer”, he says.

Armstrong gives credit to those who helped hone his leadership skills over the years, and though he captains the proverbial ship, the PCB managing director says he is ready to learn from all members of his team.

“One of the most important ingredients to growth, both personal and professional, comes from a fierce desire to be coached at all times and I have been lucky to have had great mentors throughout my career: Peter Moses, Dennis Cohen, Eva Lewis, Richard Byles, Donovan Perkins and Peter Melhado, who all represent only a few of the people that I have learnt from.

“Furthermore, while I have always had an unwavering ambition for senior positions, my focus was always to be a shareholder of the organisation for which I worked. I always think and act like a shareholder, wanting to create value, capture market share and look for opportunities to grow,” said Armstrong.

“At the end of the day, I want to be a leader and team member of a meaningful organisation; an ambitious company that has the potential to leave a massive footprint within the next 10 to 15 years [and] that has improved the lives of not only its team members, but the communities in which we operate. PCFS is an excellent example of that type of organisation,” he said.

Judging by his drive and experience, Armstrong appears to be just the man to carve out that massive footprint.