Marcos A. Kerbel, MBA, is assistant teaching professor in the Department of Finance in the FIU College of Business.
Mr. Kerbel has been a distinguished international banker, CPA, CFP, university professor, consultant, and community leader. He was born in Cuba and came to the United States alone in his early teens as part of Operation Pedro Pan and lived in foster homes in Los Angeles. He reunited with his parents and brother a year later. The family resettled in Atlanta, Georgia, and then moved to Miami. While living in Atlanta, Mr. Kerbel earned an MBA in international business and a BBA in accounting from Georgia State University.
Mr. Kerbel began his banking career with Pan American Bank of Miami (now Bank of America), where he rose from trainee to senior vice president and deputy manager of its international division. Later, Mr. Kerbel joined Israel Discount Bank Limited, to be the head of its then newly licensed International Banking Agency in Miami, having been the first license issued by the State of Florida. He remained with the bank for twenty-two years as senior vice president and manager.
A founding treasurer and past chair of the board of directors of the Florida International Bankers Association (FIBA), Mr. Kerbel has also chaired many of the organization's important committees, including its twenty-fifth anniversary celebration, for which he coauthored Leading the Way: A Comprehensive History of International Banking in Florida (2004), as well as a complementary video. In commemoration of FIBA's thirty-fifth anniversary, the book's second edition was published in 2015. Mr. Kerbel has chaired FIBA's education and training committee for over a decade and was named dean of the FIBA Academy.
In 1988, Florida Governor Robert Martinez appointed Mr. Kerbel to the International Banking Trade Study Commission, which was responsible for drafting several bills that became law. Mr. Kerbel is also the Gold Medallion recipient from the City of Miami Beach for exceptional international leadership. He is a current member of the Antonio Jorge Social and Economic Development Council (SEDC) of the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners.
Mr. Kerbel recently became a member of the scholarly advisory council of CasaCuba at FIU and the faculty advisor for the FIU Student Chapter of the Financial Planning Association (FPA). He previously participated in the MOV’N Committee of the County and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, dealing with traffic and transportation issues.
Mr. Kerbel has been a distinguished educator for more than thirty years, has taught both undergraduate and graduate students, and received numerous teaching awards. He has also been an adjunct faculty member at Barry University and Miami Dade College and its Center for Financial Training. He also teaches at UNIBE in the Dominican Republic and the Center of Monetary and Banking Studies at the University Thomas More in Managua, Nicaragua. Mr. Kerbel has also participated as a speaker and panelist in hemispheric banking and finance conferences.