Mr. Michael J. Sonego, also known as Mike, has been Executive Vice President and Residential Lending Executive at Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida since September 28, 2016. Mr. Sonego joined Seacoast in January 2016 with nearly 30 years of banking experience. Mr. Sonego served as the Head of Small Business Banking of Citizens Republic Bancorp, Inc. (formerly, Citizens Banking Corp.) since August 2006 and also served as its Senior Vice President and Head of residential mortgage banking and title services areas. Prior to joining Seacoast, he served as Senior Vice President, National Leader & Program Manager of Investment Center for FirstMerit Bank, based in Flint, Michigan. In his time at FirstMerit Bank, Mr. Sonego was responsible for sales, revenue and compliance of 150 mortgage loan officers and investment advisors across the FirstMerit footprint. Mr. Sonego was responsible for the performance and origination of retail and wholesale residential mortgages and title services at Citizens Banking Corp. Prior to joining Citizens Banking Corp., he was with Bank One and its predecessors for nearly 20 years in various management positions in both mortgage sales support and mortgage origination in Oakland County and Metro Detroit. In 1998, he became the national mortgage sales manager for Bank One, where he designed and implemented national management structure which includes managing originators, sales managers and division managers in 14 states. Subsequently, he served as a market business manager in Private Client Services responsible for Troy and Grosse Pointe, Michigan offices including private banking, trust advisors and client advisors as well as estate planning, financial planning and insurance for clients. Most recently, he served as Regional investment director of Private Client Services, where he was responsible for the supervision and management of a team of investment specialists in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. He serves as an active member of the Builders Association of Southeast Michigan. Mr. Sonego holds a master's degree in Finance from Walsh College in Troy, Michigan and received his bachelor of business administration from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.