Hawthorne Financial Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., has promoted Simone Lagomarsino to president and chief executive officer of both it and its subsidiary, Hawthorne Savings.
Ms. Lagomarsino succeeds Scott A. Braly, who resigned last month, and Gary W. Brummet, who has been acting chief executive officer. Mr. Brummet will remain on the board of directors, and Ms. Lagomarsino is to join the boards of both the bank and holding company.
She was executive vice president and chief financial officer of the company and bank. She joined the company last February and has 20 years of financial services experience.
Hawthorne Savings has $1.5 billion of assets.
MIDWEST
Home Federal Bancorp in Seymour, Ind., has promoted president and chief executive officer John K. Keach Jr. to chairman of the company and its Home Federal Bank, effective Jan. 1.Mr. Keach is to succeed John Keach Sr. as chairman, and the elder Mr. Keach will retire from the board with the title of chairman emeritus.
The younger Mr. Keach joined the bank in 1974. He was promoted to its president and chief operating officer in 1987 and to president and chief executive officer of the holding company in 1994. In his new post he will remain CEO and president of the bank and holding company.
Home Federal Bank has $748 million of assets and 16 offices in southern Indiana.
Amalgamated Bank of Chicago has promoted its president, Robert M. Wrobel, to chief executive officer of the bank and its subsidiary Amalgatrust Co.Mr. Wrobel succeeds Eugene P. Heytow, who will remain chairman of both the bank and subsidiary.
Mr. Wrobel, 50, joined Amalgamated in 1972 and was promoted to president of the bank in 1991. He is to retain the post of president. He is also a director of the bank, Amalgatrust, and Amalgamated Investment Co., the parent company.
Amalgamated Bank has $523 million of assets.
MIDDLE ATLANTIC
Main Street Bancorp in Reading, Pa., has hired Larry R. Kitchen to be vice president of marketing.Mr. Kitchen was promotions consultant at Dubbs Co., a promotions agency in Allentown, Pa. Earlier he was a corporate sales manager at Harrisburg, Pa.-based Dauphin Deposit Corp., which had bought his former employer, Bank of Pennsylvania, in 1991. Dauphin was later acquired by First National Bank of Maryland, now known as Allfirst Inc.
Main Street is the parent of Main Street Bank. It has $1.3 billion of assets.
SOUTHWEST
Southwest Bank of Texas in Houston has promoted president and chief operating officer Paul B. Murphy to chief executive officer.Mr. Murphy will remain president and operations chief, as well as a director. He succeeds the bank's founder and chairman, Walter Johnson. Mr. Johnson said he will remain active in the bank as executive chairman with an extension of his employment contract that covers at least six years.
Mr. Murphy joined the bank 10 years ago as executive vice president and a founding member of its management team. He was promoted to president in 1996. Earlier he worked for Allied Bank in Houston and its buyer, First Interstate Bank.
Southwest Bank is a subsidiary of $2.6 billion-asset Southwest Bancorporation of Texas.
WEST
Imperial Bancorp in Los Angeles announced that executive vice president and chief financial officer Christine M. McCarthy has resigned, effective Jan. 2, to be senior vice president and treasurer of the Walt Disney Co.She joined Imperial two years ago as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Norman P. Creighton, vice chairman and chief executive officer of the company's Imperial Bank subsidiary, is to assume her responsibilities until a successor is named. The $6.4 billion-asset company said it expects to complete its CFO search in the first quarter.
