About

Jesse Torres has spent nearly 25 years in the banking industry. Starting out of college as a bank examiner, spending some time as a Big Four consultant and eventually working his way to CEO of a community bank.

Jesse has worked hard over the years to develop into a strong leader and to earn highly regarded executive management positions. After leading an undercapitalized and overburdened community bank for five years during The Great Recession, Jesse opted to take a break and lick his wounds by consulting for other banks while exercising his long-time desire/curiosity to venture into the start-up world.

Jesse's broad experiences have provided him with an extremely diverse skill set that includes risk management, internal audit, operations, credit administration, information technology, marketing, public relations and regulatory compliance. Jesse has held senior management positions in financial institutions ranging from $40 million in asset size to over $6 billion.

Jesse has written books and articles related to entrepreneurship, marketing, social media and risk management. Jesse previously hosted a radio show on NBC News Radio, is a regular contributor for Entrepreneur.com, a frequent conference speaker and is often interviewed by business publications.

Jesse is a graduate of UCLA and holds a post-graduate certificate from the Pacific Coast Banking School. Jesse has sat for and passed several certification examinations, including CISA, CIA and CISSP.

Jesse is the recipient of a Congressional Businessperson of the Year commendation and was the runner-up in the International Latino Book Awards. Jesse's involvement in the business community and his social media savvy have resulted in his development as an influencer in the small business/entrepreneur community with a Klout score ranging from 73-75. Jesse maintains an active Twitter following with over 120,000 followers and a very strong LinkedIn following.

Reach him at Jesse.Torres.2009@anderson.ucla.edu