My name is Kamaal Shakkour, a Palestinian and first-generation American. I am Assistant Vice President at Fifth Third Bank in their Commercial/Middle Market bank. As a lifelong Clevelander, I spent most of my childhood in the Westside, currently living in Rocky River. I attended Amherst Steele High School, and like many of us, graduated from Cleveland State University with my degree in Finance.

 

My main inspirations in both my professional and personal, is my father, Sami. He is a small business owner, and for as long as I can remember, has always worked tirelessly to give our family of 4 the best possible life he could after immigrating to America with nothing to his name. Even more impressive, he always acted with integrity, and never strayed from his moral identity in the pursuit of success. He also taught me “The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he cannot are both right,” which is my main sentiment to this day.

 

The immigrant mentality is something I believe exists and influences me heavily, and in a lot of ways, I view that as my advantage in the professional world – hard work in the pursuit of happiness and security for the family, as opposed to the material items. Growing up a first-generation American Arab is truly a unique blessing, and I would never trade this experience for anything.