Center Bancorp Inc. in Union, N.J., said late Friday that two directors had resigned and that it planned to appoint an investment manager to the board.
John DeLaney and Elliot Kramer resigned on Wednesday from the company and its Union Center National Bank. Center did not provide a reason for the departures.
Center's board elected Alan Straus, a portfolio manager at Omega Advisors Inc., an investment firm run by Leon Cooperman. Straus will stand for election during the company's 2011 annual meeting.
This is not the first time that the $1.2 billion-asset Center has shuffled management or its board this year.
On Sept. 30 the company added Anthony Weagley, its president and chief executive, to the board. Stephen J. Mauger, the company's treasurer and chief financial officer, left Center in November.
