Wayne Bradshaw rose from humble beginnings to shepherd black banks through turmoil

Wayne-Kent Bradshaw, 71, is chief executive of Broadway Federal Bank, an institution he helped rescue from fraud and the recession. It's now the last African American bank headquartered in the Western United States, and the probable last stop in a successful career that would have seemed unlikely as a teenager in Jamaica. Bradshaw says he has been guided by the firm belief that banking can be a force for good.

Island native

Born and raised in Kingston by a single mother, Bradshaw showed early promise. He took and passed a national exam that got him admitted to Wolmer's, an august prep school that once was reserved only for the children of wealthy families. When he was 14, though, Bradshaw's mother, Gloria, left Jamaica to find work in Los Angeles, where the job