By Skyler Obispo

What does one need to be a commercial banker, a single mother of two kids, a free diver, a retail associate, and an assistant operations manager at one of largest jiu jitsu organizations in the Marianas? 

The answer is a certain measure of focus and discipline – and for Shelly L. Santos, a deep-rooted drive to prove that anything is possible. 

Santos is a commercial banking associate at First Hawaiian Bank in its Maite branch and has been in and around the banking industry for more than 16 years. 

She began her banking career at the bank in 2006 as a vault teller, which she describes as starting from the bottom. Prior to that she worked in retail at Planet Hollywood Guam.

A little under a year later, the bank’s management recognized her potential. 

“One of the managers outside of the vault said, ‘You don’t belong in there,’” Santos says. 

So she transitioned into customer service and later worked as a bank teller, remaining in those roles until 2014.

“From there it just grew on me, [and] I’m thinking I could do this,” she says. 

In March 2014, she took the opportunity to move to Affinity Solutions, a merchant services firm that handles point-of-sale machines and merchant IT support for businesses. This was during its early days as a startup on Guam. 

“It was a small group of us,” she says. At Affinity Solutions, it was Santos’s first foray into handling business clients.

In 2016, Santos joined JP Morgan Chase Bank in San Francisco in its commercial banking department — her first formal role as a commercial banker.  

She worked at Chase for about a year before returning to Guam and rejoining First Hawaiian Bank, this time in the commercial banking department in 2018. 

Throughout her time in the banking industry, several facets of the trade Santos took away were being able to multitask and show empathy. She says she believes in deeply understanding the situations of her clients and doing her best to serve them. 

Alongside her banking career, Santos has taken on multiple roles in the community. She is assistant operations manager of SS Fury LLC, which organizes the Marianas Open Jiu Jitsu; a retail associate with Calvin Klein; and secretary for the steering committee of the Guam Young Professionals, a recent role this year.

Santos was recognized as one of Guam Business Magazine’s “Forty under 40” in 2024.

Looking back, Santos told GBM that her path was anything but predictable. “In my younger years, I would never think I would be in a bank,” she said. 

In the early years of her career, Santos says she felt that she didn’t have a lot of confidence in herself.  If she had the ability to go back in time, she would tell her past self, “You can do it,” she says.

“I’m so much smarter than I [thought] I was, back then,” she says. “Whatever I learned is something no one could take away. [Your] knowledge is yours to keep.” 

Seeking challenge, embracing change, and staying motivated for her family — especially as a single mother — led her to develop a career built on discipline, drive, and discovery. 

Santos says that there is definitely a challenge in handling multiple responsibilities, but one she willingly faces. “It’s hard working these jobs, but I cannot not be doing anything.” But for her children, it is also about setting the right example. 

“I just want to show my kids that through my sacrifice, going into work early, leaving late at times, working … many jobs at a time.  She says, “I hope that’s a good example for them — to show them that you don’t have to rely on other people to get to where you’re at.”