G. Frederick Reinhardt, president of The Bank of Fairfield, has worked backward: born waving a passport as an international traveler and working ever since toward a more sedentary status as a banker in Fairfield.
“I grew up in a foreign service family,” said Reinhardt. “My father was a career diplomat; I was born in Paris.”
Reinhardt”™s early travels followed his father”™s career as a U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, the United Arab Republic and Italy. While in Vietnam, Reinhardt”™s father worked to improve relations between the United States and South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem.
“All the while my siblings and I attended French schools,” said Reinhardt. “The French schools were the best in other countries and we followed that French academic tradition.”
In the late ”™50s, Reinhardt”™s family moved back to Washington, D.C. Upon arriving in the U.S., Reinhardt attended a boarding school in Fairfield.
“I came back to the United States to attend high school,” said Reinhardt. “That”™s where I had to hunker down and learn how to write English.”
Reinhardt is fluent in French, Italian and English and also speaks German.
Reinhardt went on to attend Kenyon College in Ohio where he majored in political philosophy.
“At that point, I thought I would be following in my father”™s footsteps,” said Reinhardt. “That would not happen because by the time I graduated my father had died and the State Department was heavily bloated at the time. So I went into banking; I joined Chemical Bank in 1974.”
Reinhardt”™s international legs were put to use at Chemical when he was transferred to Rome.
While in Rome, Reinhardt began traveling the narrow streets on the Italian line of scooters manufactured by Piaggio. Reinhardt has been a Vespa rider ever since.
Â
“You don”™t need a parking sticker,” said Reinhardt. “We all wave or nod at each other.”
Â
As Reinhardt”™s career progressed, he has touched on commercial, multinational and private banking for more than 30 years.
He was based in London, heading Merrill Lynch”™s private bank lending business in Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Most recently, before coming to The Bank of Fairfield in the spring of this year, he was co-head of High Net Worth Banking at Merrill Lynch.
“My commute is now four minutes and 30 seconds on my scooter,” said Reinhardt.
Reinhardt”™s love for things small and maneuverable doesn”™t stop with his scooter; he also builds and races miniature boats.”
“As a young person I built bookcases and small pieces of furniture,” said Reinahrdt. “A few years ago, I really got into building a 17-foot sailing boat. It was a worthwhile opportunity, I was able to build it in my barn, but it works; it floats.”
Soon after, the scale of Reinhardt”™s sailboats shrank.
I joined a group at the Pequot Yacht Club who build 4-foot boats and race them,” said Reinhardt. “Every week down on the Mill River we put out our boats, with racers of all ages, and we have standard racing rules that apply.”
He is also an avid cook. He lives in Fairfield with his wife, an interior designer, and dogs. The couple has four grown children.
