Peapack-Gladstone Financial has expanded its executive team, shifting Chief Operating Officer Finn Caspersen Jr. to the newly created position of chief strategic officer and hiring Robert Plante to succeed Caspersen as COO.
CEO Doug Kennedy said in a press release this week that he wanted Caspersen, who had served as COO of the Bedminster, N.J., company since 2013, “to pivot away from day-to-day operations and spend more time with me on strategy.”
As chief strategic officer, Caspersen’s new responsibilities include consideration of new business lines and revenue opportunities, mergers and acquisitions, and oversight of Peapack Private, the $3.9 billion-asset company’s recently introduced private banking initiative.
He will continue to serve as the general counsel.
Plante joins Peapack-Gladstone from IDB Bank in New York, where he served the past four years as COO. He was IDB’s chief information officer prior to that. Plante has also worked for CIT Group and GE Capital.
Plante “has a tremendous operations and technology background and is already familiar with all of our core vendors in both wealth and retail,” Kennedy said in a separate release.
