Stan Rubin: Recognizing Humanity in the Face of Adversit

Stan Rubin is no stranger to risks, especially as he approaches his 50th year in the finance industry. Taking them, managing them, overcoming them; Rubin has done it all. His professional journey began in 1977 at PricewaterhouseCoopers, before he took on his first big role as Chief Financial Officer at American Express's Singapore-based Japan/Asia Pacific/Australia Region in 2001.

During Rubin’s time at American Express, the regional differences and his responsibilities as a first-time C-level executive were among the biggest challenges he faced, as this was also his first time working at the company. Though this role was challenging, Rubin is still grateful for what he learned during it, and emphasized a few lessons he took away from his time at American Express. 

The first one, Rubin said, is to “never go into any position without knowing, ultimately, who the boss is going to be.” This lesson came from Rubin’s experience stepping in as the region’s CFO, despite being a first-time employee at the company, and encountering significant uncertainty. 

The second lesson emphasizes familiarizing yourself with the people you work with. Rubin encourages “to try to spend more time just meeting people, connecting,” and to “make those relationships grow as fast as you can.” Rubin added, “And I probably didn’t do that.”

This second lesson was particularly important in defining the rest of Rubin’s career. When asked about what he believed was the most important part of being a leader, he again emphasized the importance of understanding the people around you, stating that the best leaders he had ever encountered “really do care about the people that are working.” 

Rubin’s view on leadership played a key role when he joined a struggling Oceanbank in 2010 as Chief Financial Officer, stepping right into a stream of financial losses, declining capital, and high nonperforming assets. Rubin stated that, as he made decisions in his role as CFO, one of which included separating the bank into divisions, he would constantly think about raising employees’ morale, stating that a leader “could be the most intelligent, experienced [person] in the world, but if the morale’s down, and they’re not motivated, you get nothing.”

Rubin would later be awarded “Turnaround of the Year” by the South Florida Business Journal for his transformational work at Oceanbank, underscoring the importance of recognizing the people around you, understanding what they need in moments of crisis, and overcoming risks, especially as artificial intelligence continues to advance.

To this, Rubin noted, “as much as we are doing with A.I. and all of that, you’re still going to have people around, you need to have that human element there.”