Introducing

Lisa Vance Rudy loves a challenge. The vice president and residential loan officer at SunTrust Mortgage in Naples not only keeps busy with our area's booming local real estate market, but she's expecting her first child in January.

"I would much rather be too busy and have 10 things going on at once than have the phone not ringing," Rudy says of her busy schedule. "I'd much rather be a multitasker."

That's one of the things she enjoys most about her job. The mortgage banking business is a highly competitive one, particularly in Southwest Florida. "If somebody tells me they're shopping with another lender, that just tells me I've got to work that much harder," she says. "You go after it and fight for it."

But her favorite aspect of her career, Rudy says, is the people. With most of her clients either buying a first home, upgrading to a better home or investing in property, she relates, "You're helping them achieve some kind of dream."

Beginning with SunTrust as a customer service rep in 1990, Rudy was soon promoted to branch manager, supervising three different offices over a four-year period. Then in 1998, after a brief flirtation with a Series 6 license to sell mutual funds ("I thought, 'What am I doing? I hate this,'" she says), Rudy found her niche.

Though she was fortunate enough to work her way up the ladder at a top company, Rudy knows that, especially now and in this market, her profession is a tough one to get into. "You have to have a drive and passion to succeed," she advises. "You have to be outgoing, not afraid to knock on doors, not afraid of rejection, a self-starter."

Having mentored at SunTrust with a senior loan officer, Rudy now gives back by serving as a mentor to others. Rudy also makes time in her schedule to get involved with various community organizations, particularly Naples' Zonta Club, a women's organization founded in 1919 to "improve, enhance, and impact the status of women," she explains. As one of the directors on the organization's board, Rudy works with women-focused charities, helping with fund-raising and even manual labor, as when club members helped paint the PACE Center for Girls, a nonprofit, nontraditional high school.

Rudy's chosen career in banking has done more for her than provide a career she thrives in and loves. It also inadvertently led to her meeting her husband, Matt, a histotechnologist at the Cleveland Clinic, when a colleague set up the two on a blind date.

With a new daughter due next month and the mortgage industry busier than ever in post-hurricane Florida, Rudy, as usual, has her hands full. But that's exactly how she likes it. "I just don't like to be bored," she says. "It's like a roller-coaster-you never know what kind of day you're going to have. It's exciting."

Hometown: Portland, Ind.
Hobbies: Exercising, dining out, movies, shopping.
Favorite local restaurant: Roy's in Bonita Springs at the Promenade.
Favorite movie: An Officer and a Gentleman.
The best thing about the local business climate: It's a growth market. People are constantly moving to Southwest Florida.