CHARGELEADING THE

F O R K I D S ’ S A K E

FineMark Bank’s Joe Catti at the helm of

Children’s Hospital capital campaign

August 2011

H E L P I N G H A N D S , C A R I N G H E A R T S

Joe Catti’s call to the community

OSEPH CATTI’S CURRICULUM VITAE reads like a man who wears many hats: trustee on the governing board of Florida Gulf Coast University; chairman of the United Way; trustee for the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation; and board member of CCMI, a

Fort Myers soup kitchen. Oh, he also has a day job as president and CEO of FineMark National Bank & Trust, a company he helped found in 2007.

Often described as one of South-west Florida’s most philanthropic executives — his colleagues and friends express awe at his tireless can-do attitude and successes — Mr. Catti gives back to the community simply because “it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “I believe we all have the responsibility to give to others.”

Mr. Catti isn’t one for the spotlight nor does he easily accept credit, say his colleagues. But as the head of one of the area’s largest fundraisers — a $125 million capital campaign to build the new 398,000-square-foot, 148-bed Children’s Hospital of South-west Florida — Mr. Catti is front and center. If anyone can elicit excite-ment and financial support for such

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WAn artist’s rendering of the new Children’s Hospital to be built on Lee Memorial’s HealthPark campus.

The nearly 400,000-square-foot Children’s Hos-pital will offer a dedicated and separate emergency room for children and expand the existing 98-bed hospital’s capacity to 148 beds.

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CHARGEleading

theFOR THE KIDS

“ It’s the right thing to do. I believe we all have the respon-sibility to give to others. ”

— Joseph Catti

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a needed facility, it’s Joe Catti, says a friend who advised the bank president against accepting the challenge.

“Joe knew we needed someone to chair this campaign, and I told him he shouldn’t do it. He had too much going on,” says Jim Nathan, president and CEO of Lee Memorial Health System. “He convinced me he should, that we needed someone with his passion and energy to make it successful. His service to this community is almost unparalleled.”

The Children’s Hospital’s Gift of a Lifetime campaign, which launched early this year, is made up of a series of ‘pods,’ chaired by community rep-resentatives who have each pledged to raise $5 million and $10 million.

“There are many very generous people in this community and I am for-tunate enough to know many of them,” says Mr. Catti. “They know when they get a call from me, I may be asking for money. But they are also the first to rise to the occasion, and since this effort is so large, I am also calling on other people in the community to help call their friends and do what they can. The Children’s Hospital benefits sev-eral counties, so we are expanding our efforts to get more people involved.”

The Children’s Hospital of South-west Florida, located on the Health-Park Medical Center campus, cares for a growing number of young patients within a five-county region and is the only comprehensive pediatric hospital between St. Petersburg and Miami. The current facility operates at 104 percent occupancy, admits more than 5,000 children annually and treats 41,000 pediatric patients through its outpa-tient services. In-patient surgeries have grown to 1,200; the smallest patient weighs just 12 ounces.

Mr. Catti and his wife JoAnn, like many long-time supporters of the hospital, know the importance of hav-ing a pediatric facility close to home. Their oldest daughter was born with a life-threatening blood infection and spent three weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit close to their home on Florida’s east coast. Their second daughter required emergency surgery; the 3-month-old spent two weeks at

Miami’s children’s hospital. “JoAnn and I are fortunate enough

to have four healthy grown children but we did face two very difficult situations when our daughters were infants,” Mr. Catti says. “In both cases, our girls were treated in the city where we lived. From this personal experi-ence, JoAnn and I understand how vital it is to have a facility to treat children in the community where they live. Families with sick children have enough to deal with and ideally should not have to travel to different parts of the state for treatment. Our Children’s Hospital is already exceptional, but our goal is to keep the services superior and to keep them local.”

Fundraising, as Mr. Catti has learned, is often a delicate balancing act: You don’t want to ask for too much — or too little. He recalls meeting with a couple who readily agreed to donate $500,000 to a new health education building at FGCU.

“Later that evening I saw them at dinner and the husband asked why I hadn’t asked for more money,” Mr. Catti says. “My response was, ‘I didn’t want to seem greedy, but if you’re open to it, would you consider a million dollars?’ On the spot he agreed. I could tell you a number of similar stories, but I’m still always astounded by the generosity of the people in this com-munity.”

Mr. Catti credits his tenure at North-ern Trust for introducing him to phi-lanthropy in the corporate world — a mission he took with him to FineMark.

“Northern’s culture included a commitment to giving back to the community and as such, it became ingrained in the people who worked there,” he says. “From that point on, I realized the personal value of giving back and my efforts have grown since. On a very personal level, it is my faith that drives me to give of my time and resources. My family and I have been very fortunate and we feel compelled and responsible to give to others.”

FineMark’s 70 employees are encour-aged to take a half day of paid time off monthly for volunteer service. About 90 percent do, says Mr. Catti. FineMark has also committed hundreds of thou-

The Lee Memorial Health System Auxiliaries have made an over-whelming $650,000 commitment to The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida Building Fund. The Lee Memorial Auxiliary, which serves four hospitals — Lee Memorial Hospital, HealthPark Medical Center, The Rehabilitation Hospital and the existing Children’s Hospital facility will be contributing $500,000; the Cape Coral Hospital Auxiliary is contributing $100,000 and the Gulf Coast Medical Center Auxiliary has pledged $50,000.

The Auxiliaries embraced the cam-paign as part of their mission to benefit the patients of Lee Memori-al Health System and the commu-nity. As all-volunteer organizations, their generous support is expected to stimulate the participation of many other community groups in The Children’s Hospital expansion project and will help expedite the journey from vision to reality.

Their initiative, their financial commitments, and their recogni-tion of the potential community, regional, state and national impact of America’s Newest Children Hospital on the lives of children ev-erywhere, have generated a pow-erful momentum that will ensure success. Led by Lee Memorial Auxiliary President Al Kinkle, Cape Coral Hospital Auxiliary President Mary Pat Roleke and Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center Auxiliary President Nancy Stanfield, the Auxiliaries have made a remark-able promise to the children and parents of Southwest Florida.

Auxiliaries come through for the cause

“ I probably find the most sat-isfaction when I can see the benefits to an in-dividual or family I’m helping. ”

— Joseph Catti

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sands of dollars to the community.“Philanthropy and service to the com-

munity is part of our company’s DNA,” Mr. Catti says. “It’s part of why people come to work here. We aren’t the first company to do this. I actually borrowed the idea from Scott Edmonds when he was at the helm of Chico’s.”

Mr. Catti’s giving nature influences employees and banking customers, says Dick Riley, an executive vice president and FineMark co-founder and president of the bank’s Coconut Point office. “From the in-ception of this bank, we’ve encouraged all of our employees to be part of the community,” he says. “It’s part of our corporate mission, and it comes from the very top. Joe leads by example.

“Joe is a dynamic leader, a visionary,” Mr. Riley adds. “He really believes one of the major roles he plays on behalf of the bank is to help the community. If anyone asks for help, they will get the help they need.”

As part of its pledge to the capital cam-paign, FineMark has hosted client bus tours of the hospital, says Mr. Riley. “It’s a great opportunity for our guests to see the won-derful work being done at the hospital.”

Although his tenures on the boards of FCGU, the United Way, CCMI and Lee Memorial — commitments he says address the most significant community needs of “providing health care, education and food to those in need” — get the most attention, Mr. Catti says the one-on-one efforts, those out of the spotlight’s glow, often mean the most.

“I probably find the most satisfaction when I can see the benefits to an individual or family I’m helping,” he says. “I do not give with the idea of expecting something in return, but when I can see direct results, it’s extremely rewarding for me personally.”

“It’s rare for Joe to take credit for things he should,” says Mr. Riley.

Mr. Nathan agrees: “Joe does a lot of behind-the-scenes things no one knows about. He’ll organize an event to get meals to people or find assistance with health care. His fingerprints are all over this community. People trust and relate to Joe because they know he’s straight with them. He doesn’t want or desire credit. He doesn’t say no often and it’s hard for anyone to say no to him.” G

get involved To donate to the new Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida Capital Campaign, call (239) 343-6950 or go to www.leememorial.org/foundation/make-a-donation.asp.

Joe Catti does a large volume of work behind-the-scenes to help the community.