Originally from Oslo, Norway, son of a Norwegian father and Canadian mother, Eric Ellingsen tells a classic American success story. As an international salesman, his father moved the family around a lot. Ellingsen spent his high school years in Venezuela and Montreal, Canada. He got his undergraduate degree from a regional college in Virginia and headed west in his early 20s to California, where he took an entry-level accounting position at California Bank & Trust in 1999. He got his MBA in 2005 from the University of California, Los Angeles, while still working for the bank. Now 36, he’s the bank’s chief financial officer.