BankBoston Corp. is rewarding a longtime executive of the former BayBanks Inc.
The $64.5 billion-asset banking company promoted Giles E. Mosher Jr., 64, to vice chairman of its principal operating subsidiary, BankBoston NA. His new job began last week.
In the new job he will oversee commercial and retail operations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the bank's two largest markets.
Mr. Mosher, formerly president of BayBank, the principal operating subsidiary of BayBanks Inc., will report to chairman William M. Crozier Jr., his longtime colleague at BayBanks.
The promotion came just two weeks after BankBoston completed the integration of operating units acquired from BayBanks in 1996.
BankBoston has two vice chairmen at the holding company level: William J. Shea, chief financial officer, and Paul F. Hogan, head of corporate banking.
Mr. Mosher's new role brings broader responsibilities than he previously had at BayBank. He said he would focus on organizational issues and the delivery of BankBoston products and services to commercial and retail customers in northern New England.
The consolidation of operations brings Mr. Mosher new territories, in Pittsfield and Worcester, Mass., where BayBank had not had a strong presence.
"Now that we've consolidated all the regional banks, I will focus on the processes, systems, and organizations through which we deliver all our products in the region," he said in a telephone interview.
While his background has been largely in commercial banking, Mr. Mosher said he would play a role in BankBoston's new retail branding strategy.
Mr. Mosher has spent his entire 42-year career at BayBanks and its predecessor organizations.
A native of the Boston area, he graduated from Boston College in 1955 and immediately joined Newton-Waltham Bank and Trust Co. as manager of the credit department. By 1970, he had risen to chairman and president of that bank, which merged with BayBank Middlesex in 1979.
Mr. Mosher was chairman and president of BayBank Middlesex and later its chairman and chief executive officer. In 1995, he was named president of BayBank, N.A.
