Leonard L. Abess
Encyclopedia
Leonard Abess is a United States banker who sold his own company, City National Bank of Florida for $945 million and gave his staff a bonus. He shared $60 million between them.

Abess’ father co-founded City National Bank of Florida in 1946. Abess graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

. He started his career at the bank in its print shop. In 1984, Abess at age 35 became one of the youngest chairmen of a bank in the United States when he borrowed $21 million to purchase a majority interest in City National Bank from investors who lost it in bankruptcy court due to fraud. Abess rebuilt the business from having $400 million in assets to $2.75 billion at the time of the sale.

In November 2008, Abess sold his 83 percent share of the bank the Caja Madrid banking group for $927 million and shared $60 million of the proceeds with 399 current staff members and 72 former employees. On February 24, 2009, President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 praised Abess in his State of the Union Address and invited Abess and another bank employee to be his guest at the speech.

Abess serves as a Trustee of the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

 and in 2006 donated $5 million to establish the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, to foster innovative interdisciplinary approaches to environmental management and decision-making. Abess is also chair of the University of Miami's finance committee and a member of the executive, investment and medical affairs committees. He also serves as a trustee of Fairchild Tropical Garden and of The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....

/Florida Chapter and a former trustee of the Eaglebrook School
Eaglebrook School
Eaglebrook School is an independent junior boarding school for boys in Deerfield, Massachusetts. It is located on the Pocumtuck Range near Deerfield Academy and sited on a campus which is also preserved by the Deerfield Wildlife Trust....

 in Deerfield, Massachusetts
Deerfield, Massachusetts
Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 as of the 2000 census. Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area in Western Massachusetts, lying only north of the city of Springfield.Deerfield includes the...



Abess and his wife not only funded UM's environmental policy center, but they also founded a Floating Research Station in the Brazilian Amazon and the Abess Center for Environmental Studies at Miami Country Day School
Miami Country Day School
Miami Country Day School is a private, non-denominational, co-ed Preschool–12 college preparatory school near Miami Shores, just north of the city of Miami, Florida. The school has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.- History :...

.

In 2007, the Miami Chamber of Commerce honored Abess and his wife Jayne with their "Sand in My Shoes Award." In 2006, the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce gave him its "Doc Baker Lifetime Achievement Award." Leonard Abess is a member of the board of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and former chairman of the board of Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he remains a founder and trustee. He is also former chairman of the Mount Sinai finance committee, audit committee and nominating committee and former treasurer of the medical center's board of trustees.
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