How Owen McCarthy Built VetWorks Ocala — and Why a West Point Banker is the Right Person for the Job

Owen McCarthy is a commercial loan officer and Vice President at Gulf Atlantic Bank in Ocala. He's also a West Point graduate, a former Army officer, an M&A and public accounting alumnus, and one of the founding members — and the operational driver — of VetWorks Ocala.

Anyone who's spent time at the second-Tuesday lunch knows him. Owen is the one who picks the venue, sends the reminder, makes the introductions, and follows up with the person who couldn't attend. He runs the network the way a battalion S-3 runs operations: clear plan, clear ownership, accountability for follow-through.

His banking customers describe him similarly. The relationships he builds at Gulf Atlantic Bank look more like advisor-client engagements than transactional lending. He doesn't just process loan applications — he learns the business behind the application, asks the questions that uncover what's really happening on the income statement, and structures financing that fits how the business actually operates rather than how the loan template assumes it does.

The path from the United States Military Academy at West Point to commercial banking in Marion County isn't the obvious one. But it makes sense in Owen's case for two reasons: West Point teaches a particular discipline around analytical work and team leadership, and Owen specifically pursued financial expertise after the military instead of stopping at the JD or MBA most West Point grads default to.

He spent four and a half years on active duty as an Army officer, learning the kind of operational thinking that shows up later in his loan structuring work. Then he earned a Master's in Accounting and built a career in mergers & acquisitions and public accounting before transitioning into commercial banking.

That combination — military operational discipline, M&A pattern recognition, and accounting depth — is unusual on the commercial banking floor. Most commercial lenders come up through bank training programs and credit-analyst tracks. Owen comes at the work from a different angle, which is part of why his customer relationships tend to be deep and durable.

Today he serves Marion County and the broader Central Florida business community as a Commercial Loan Officer at Gulf Atlantic Bank, with a focus on small and mid-sized businesses, SBA lending including veteran-specific pathways, and treasury management for growing companies.

Most people don't think about whether their banker is a veteran. They should — at least when they're a small or mid-sized business owner trying to grow.

Commercial banking is fundamentally a trust business. Your banker reads your financials, learns your operations, and either advocates for you internally when something needs flexibility or doesn't. The quality of that advocacy is the difference between getting funded on a timeline that lets you execute and getting strung along until the opportunity passes.

Veterans tend to bring two things to that work. First, the mission-orientation — a sense that the customer's success is the actual point of the job rather than the loan volume. Second, the operational depth — military officers spend careers reading complex situations under uncertainty, which is exactly the skill set commercial credit analysis requires.

For Marion County business owners specifically, working with a veteran banker also means you're working with someone who lives here, who knows the local economy, and who attends the same events you do. That's a different relationship than working with a banker whose home office is in Charlotte or Atlanta and whose authority over your loan stops at a certain dollar amount.

VetWorks Ocala existed before Owen took the lead. It had been organized as a veteran chapter under the Ocala/Marion CEP for some time, but with no consistent rhythm — a few veterans on a committee, occasional emails, no steady cadence.

In 2022, Owen decided to change that. He picked a date — the second Tuesday of every month. He picked a place — the Power Plant business incubator. And he kept showing up. The first lunches were small. A handful of veterans, sandwich-tray catering, introductions and follow-ups.

What made it stick wasn't the venue or the meal — it was the discipline of showing up. Owen built the network the way an Army officer builds a unit: through repetition, consistency, and the slow accumulation of trust that comes from being the person who actually does what they said they'd do. Four years later, the network meets monthly, has a directory of founding members, holds a public website, sends invites that arrive on time, and has a roster of new members preparing to join.

Most volunteer organizations die at the cadence Owen made VetWorks Ocala live at. The reason VetWorks is different isn't complicated — it's that Owen treats it as an actual operational responsibility rather than a side project, and the people around him follow that lead.

If you're a Marion County business owner or executive thinking about banking relationships, here's the practical version of why you'd reach out to Owen at Gulf Atlantic Bank.

Owen is the right banker for you if you operate a small or mid-sized business in Marion County or Central Florida, need commercial financing or treasury management, value a banker who knows your business operationally rather than transactionally, and prefer working with someone who lives in your community and has skin in the game on its long-term success.

He's especially helpful for veteran-owned businesses navigating SBA lending — veteran-specific SBA programs (Patriot Express, SDVOSB pathways, VA-affiliated programs) have particular structures that bankers without veteran-customer experience often miss or mishandle. Owen knows them.

And if you're a veteran who's thinking about starting a business in Marion County and trying to figure out how to capitalize it, Owen is the right first conversation. Not because he'll always be the right lender for your specific deal, but because the conversation will be useful regardless of where the financing ends up.

For banking questions, commercial lending, or SBA financing — including veteran-specific SBA programs — reach out to Owen directly at Gulf Atlantic Bank. His contact information is on his VetWorks profile page.

For VetWorks Ocala questions — joining the network, attending a trial lunch, hosting a meeting — the easiest path is to submit an application at vetworksocala.com/join. Owen will see it in the admin queue and respond personally within a business day.

And if you're in Marion County on a 2nd Tuesday at noon and want to see the network in person, come to lunch. The venue rotates monthly — check the events calendar for the current month's location.