Mary Sikes has been named Coronado Private Bank’s 2017 Coronado Citizen of the Year and will be honored at a reception at the bank on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
The reception will be held directly following the Coronado Island Film Festival’s 5 p.m. showing of “Romancing the Stone” at the Village Theatre. Coronado Private Bank at 801 Orange Avenue is across the street from the theater. Tickets are still available at the theater box office (regular ticket prices) for the film, with the party complimentary to all attendees.
Also, Dean Cundey, the cinematographer of “Romancing the Stone,” will be honored at the reception. Cundey will introduce the film.
Sikes, a 29-year resident of Coronado, was a moving force in the establishment of the Coronado Island Film Festival (CIFF), serving as President and CEO for the festival’s formative years.
CIFF held its first festival in January 2016 and its second in November 2017. But it took four additional years of strategic planning, including formation of a nonprofit corporation, followed by board development and fundraising to bring the festival into formation.
For those crucial formative years, Sikes worked quietly behind the scenes.
Sikes is a master at strategic planning, said the festival’s Founding Executive Director, Doug St. Denis, who recruited Sikes. “I always called Mary my co-conspirator, my right-hand person, and I always said she couldn’t be replaced. But we did replace her – with four people.”
Sikes’ career includes 25 years of developing startup businesses to their full potential. She specializes in venture capital development, strategic planning, product development and mergers and acquisitions.
Sikes’ positions in corporate America have included her posts as Senior Vice President, Marketing for Equifax, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing for H&R Block and Senior Vice President with Wells Fargo, where she supervised a $2.5 billion business channel start-up and operations. Earlier, she was CEO for CD1 Financial Services, a $400 million start-up and a Director for Claritus Consulting Corporation, a business unit start-up.
Sikes did her undergraduate work at Albertus Magnus University in New Haven, Connecticut and holds a bachelor of science in business from the University of Hawaii. She holds an MBA with a focus on Marketing and Statistics from Chaminade University in Honolulu and an executive management degree in contracts and negotiations from Harvard Law School.
In Coronado, Sikes is a member of PEO Chapter XI, Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Coronado Community Church. She is a past member of Soroptimist and is a poet who has participated with “Coronado Scribes.” For several years, she actively participated in feeding homeless teenagers, volunteering with “Stand Up for Kids.”
She is the mother of three and grandmother of three.
