Executive Management

Dennis B. Murphy, Jr., the President and CEO of Gulfside Bank, has over 21 years of banking experience starting his banking career in 2002 with AmSouth Bank as a member of its Management Associate program.  During his tenure with AmSouth Bank, Mr. Murphy held various roles including Branch Manager and Commercial Credit Analyst.  In 2008, Dennis left Regions Bank (which acquired AmSouth Bank) to become a founding shareholder with Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida, a community bank being formed in the Sarasota/Manatee County market.  Before its ultimate sale to CenterState Bank, NA in May of 2017, Mr. Murphy held various leadership positions with Gateway including roles such as Commercial Lender, Commercial Banking Manager and ultimately Senior Lending Officer.  As Executive Vice President and Senior Lender of the Bank for the last six years of its existence, he was responsible for all aspects of the Bank’s lending function including loan production, credit administration, loan operations, and loan compliance.  Dennis was retained after Gateway’s merger with CenterState Bank and became the Area Executive for Sarasota and Manatee Counties.  He left CenterState in October of 2017 to form Gulfside Bank.

Mr. Murphy has been active in the Sarasota and Bradenton communities since moving to the area in 2004.  Current Board involvement includes roles with the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce where he serves on the Board of Directors as the Immediate Past Chairman as well as being a member of its Executive Committee.  He is also very active with the Florida Bankers Association (FBA) where he serves on the Board of Directors of both the FBA as well as the Florida BankPAC.  Awards and recognition include being recognized as a former member of the Business Observer’s “40 under 40” and “Rising Stars in Banking” articles as well as Scene Magazine’s “Men on the Scene” series.  At its annual conference in June 2019, the Florida Bankers Association named Mr. Murphy “Florida Banker of the Year” and in October of 2019 the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce awarded him its prestigious “Chair’s Cup Award”.

Mr. Murphy is a 2002 graduate of the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL with a major in Finance.  He also obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL in 2003 and graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking held at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School in 2017.  Dennis is a 2009 graduate of Leadership Sarasota County. 

Robert A. Gates, the Executive Vice President and Senior Lending Officer of Gulfside Bank, has over 41 years banking experience.  He is responsible for all aspects of the Bank’s lending function including loan production, credit administration, loan operations and lending compliance.  Mr. Gates’ extensive banking career includes broad leadership roles across Business Banking, Commercial Banking and Market Executive Management in multiple geographies throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast Regions.  The majority of his career has been with Wells Fargo Bank and its predecessor companies. 

 

Mr. Gates earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Marymount University and attended the Commercial Banking School at Louisiana State University.

Jeffrey D. Saunders, the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Gulfside Bank, has nearly 30 years of accounting, finance and operations experience in the banking industry.  As the Bank’s CFO, Mr. Saunders leads the Bank’s accounting, finance, treasury, human resources, information technology, and deposit operations functions.  Prior to joining Gulfside Bank, Jeff had been Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of HomeBancorp, Inc., a bank holding company based in Tampa, from February 2010 until the sale of the Company in April 2018.  He was also an Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operations Officer and member of the Board of Directors of the Company’s bank affiliate, HomeBanc.  Mr. Saunders’ banking experience from 1992-2010 includes serving as the Chief Accounting Officer for Capitol Bancorp, multi-bank holding company based in Michigan and the Chief Financial Officer of Republic Bank, a $6.7 billion bank with over 90 offices in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.  Prior to starting his career in banking, Jeff worked for Deloitte, one of the big “four” accounting organizations, as an auditor. 

Mr. Saunders is a Certified Public Accountant and has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Western Michigan University.