JP Morgan has appointed former senator and HUD Secretary Mel Martinez, to the post of chairman of Florida, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Martinez will serve on JPMorgan’s executive committee and will be the firm's senior executive in Florida and the region, the bank said in a statement.

Martinez has a dramatic personal story of ascent from humble beginnings: an immigrant from Cuba, he arrived in Florida in 1962 at the age of 15 through what was called Operation Peter Pan, a program to relocate children from Cuba in the early years of the Castro regime. He lived in refugee camps and foster homes, eventually working his way through school, earning undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University. Martinez worked as an attorney in Orlando for 25 years and was first elected to public office in 1998 as Mayor of Orange County. During the presidency of George W Bush, he became US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 2001.

He has also served on a number of Senate committees after his election to the Senate in 2004.