Name
Key Coker
Title
Dallas City President,
BBVA Compass Bank
Why You Need to Know Him:
Because the well-connected Coker runs the local operation of a bank that’s an international powerhouse, with the ability to serve customers in 33 countries worldwide.
The bank’s Spanish parent operates BBVA Bancomer, the biggest financial institution in Mexico, for example. “We recently had a Dallas client with a maquiladora operation that needed equipment to expand its plant,” says Coker, 56. “We put him in touch with BBVA Bancomer in Juarez to provide the financing.”
Domestically, Coker’s Dallas operation boasts around $3.5 billion* in assets. How’d they do it? “A whole lot of hard work!” he replies.
A tall (6-feet-2), lanky native of Pittsburg, Texas, Coker has essentially been with the same bank—under three different owners—for 26 years. His office in a building at the corner of Caruth Haven and North Central Expressway is his sixth in the same building, he notes.
Coker and his wife, Katherine, enjoy getting away to their East Texas tree farm when he’s not working—or they’re not toiling on the philanthropy/ social scene. Besides overseeing the bank’s affiliations with the likes of SMU’s Meadows Museum, Coker’s a volunteer with the North Texas Food Bank and a member of Dallas’ Calyx and Terpsichorean clubs.
He and Katherine also find time to host both their mothers for dinner most every Sunday night. “The only rule,” Coker smiles, “is that they arrive by 6 and leave at 8.”
*Correction, April 5: This article previously misstated BBVA Compass’ assets in Dallas.
