If IBERIABANK Arkansas President Pete Yuan has learned anything about Little Rock since he moved here in 2010, it’s that locals don’t play around when it comes to improving their city.
“Little Rock still has that sense of community that the big cities have lost,” he says. “People here are very grounded in their roots and engaged in making this place better. This is a very good thing and defines the soul of a community.”
In the two years he’s been here, Yuan has signed on to support a long list of organizations, including the Baptist Health Foundation, Easter Seals, Episcopal Collegiate School, The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, among others.
“I think it’s very important for businesses to take ownership in making the community in which they do business better. This means re-investing in the community with financial and people resources,” says Yuan. “The thing I am most proud of about my company is not only our financial strength or consistent performance, but the fact that community support is genuinely part of our corporate DNA. We definitely ‘walk the talk.’”
We’re inclined to credit his Southern upbringing for his impeccable manners and unmatched kindness, but there’s something far greater at work here. Yuan claims his heritage and strong family ties are his greatest motivators.
“My paternal grandfather had a profound impact on my life. He was a wealthy businessman in China who became a refugee overnight when the Communist government rose to power and seized our family’s assets. Despite having lost everything he built, he was a dominant and dignified figure who encouraged his family to make their own way and be successful,” he shares. “The example he set is the biggest reason I work so hard today. Even though he passed away many years ago, the thought of letting him down is a feeling I never want to experience.”
Yuan was born in Taiwan, where his family emigrated, but moved to the U.S. when he was 9-years-old. The Yuans settled in San Antonio, where Pete and his younger sister were raised.
Growing up, Yuan had no intention of becoming a banker. He loved to draw and hoped to one day become an artist. But his dreams were shattered when – at the age of 10 – he submitted a drawing to one of those magazine art contests and never got a response. “I was crushed,” he says.
Art dreams dashed, Yuan found consolation in less subjective endeavors, like business, math and science. Still, banking wasn’t on his radar. “I was interning with IBM my senior year in college and never paid much attention to banking. A professor suggested that I look into banking. I ended up talking with several banks that came to campus (University of Texas-Arlington) to recruit my last semester and accepted an offer to join a bank in Dallas,” he says.
In no time at all he was hooked, and his banking career took him from Dallas to New Orleans (where he met his wife, Tracy), Austin and Lafayette, before bringing him to Little Rock.
We wondered how Yuan can juggle all of his responsibilities – banking career, philanthropic commitments, family time – and maintain his sanity. His answer was simple. “My personality requires that I multi-task in order to be happy,” he admits. “Whether it is for business, community, family, my daughters’ school activities, or just squeezing in a tennis match, I am constantly juggling my schedule to fit everything in. I am not always successful every day, but I think it is really important that we can look in the mirror each morning and be proud of what we see. I just try to be better today than I was yesterday.”
What you don’t know about Pete Yuan, (but should):
He jumped out of an airplane. “I did it because I was terrified of heights and needed to deal with it. It was probably the calmest, mentally, that I’ve ever been.”
He listens to Bruno Mars and Adele. Not really, but with two teenage daughters (Brooke, 16, and Alyssa, 14) Yuan says he’s learned some pop lyrics. What kind of music is he really into? “I am generally a ‘70s and ‘80s rock guy … that was my generation.”
He is a beast on the tennis court. “Tennis is the only thing I do solely for myself these days. I find the game very strategic and mentally challenging. At my age, playing singles means going up against guys much younger and more physically talented than me. This is the most stimulating part of the game for me because I have to rely on outsmarting them rather than out-hitting them.”