NEW ENGLAND
Century Bank and Trust Co. of Somerville, Mass., has promoted Jason J. Melius from first to senior vice president.
Mr. Melius, a 17-year veteran of the $1.6 billion-asset Century Bancorp Inc. unit, remains in charge of information systems.
Provident Bank of Amesbury, Mass., has promoted Charles F. Withee from senior to executive vice president.
Mr. Withee remains the senior lending officer, a job he has held since joining the $297 million-asset unit of Provident Bancorp in January 2004.
Before that he had been a senior vice president of commercial lending and private banking at First and Ocean National Bank of Newburyport. (Banknorth Group Inc. of Portland, Maine, bought First and Ocean BanCorp at the end of 2003.)
He has 20 years of banking and lending experience.
MIDDLE ATLANTICBankAnnapolis, a $271 million-asset unit of Annapolis Bancorp Inc. in Maryland, has hired Charles Ruch Jr. as a senior vice president in its business development group.
He will work with small and midsize businesses in Anne Arundel County.
Mr. Ruch was a senior vice president and the manager of the commercial lending group and the credit department at Annapolis Banking and Trust Co., a $470 million-asset unit of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore.
Sterling Financial Corp. of Lancaster, Pa., has named William E. Miller Jr. to its board.
Mr. Miller was the chairman of Pennsylvania State Banking Co., which Sterling Financial bought in December. He is also the president of Miller & Associates PC, a law firm in Camp Hill.
SOUTHEAST
Community Bankshares Inc. of Orangeburg, S.C., whose four banks have $500 million of assets in all, has hired Samuel L. Erwin as its chief executive officer.
Mr. Erwin, 36, had been a senior vice president and the commercial relationship manager at the $93 million-asset Carolina National Bank and Trust, a unit of Carolina National Corp. of Columbia., since 2002.
The rest of his banking career had been in Orangeburg. From 1990 to 1997 he had worked at First Union Bank (now Wachovia Bank) there. He left to join South Carolina Bank and Trust and was a regional executive and a senior vice president of the SCBT Financial Corp. unit. He returned to First Union in 2000 and left as its Orangeburg city executive.
At Community Bankshares he succeeded E.J. Ayers, who remains the company's chairman.
ABC Bancorp of Moultrie, Ga., said Edwin W. Hortman Jr., its president since November 2003, has become its chief executive officer too, succeeding Kenneth J. Hunnicutt.
Mr. Hunnicutt will remain the chairman of the 12-bank holding company.
Mr. Hortman relinquished the title of chief operating officer. He joined the company in 1998 as the president and CEO of its Citizens Security Bank of Tifton.
WESTPlacer Sierra Bancshares of Sacramento has named Sandra Smoley and Christi Black to its board.
Ms. Smoley is the president and chief executive officer of Sandy Smoley Group, a health-care consulting firm. Ms. Black is a California account manager for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and a member of its international management committee.
Belvedere Capital Partners, an investment firm, owns most of Placer Sierra. Ronald Bachli, the chairman of the $1.5 billion-asset banking company, owns part of Belvedere.
PUERTO RICOOriental Financial Group Inc. of San Juan said that Jose Rafael Fernandez has succeeded Jose Enrique Fernandez (no relation) as its president and chief executive officer.
Jose Enrique will remain the chairman of the parent of the $3.9 billion-asset Oriental Bank and Trust.
Jose Rafael had been Oriental Financial's chief operating officer and a senior executive vice president since last year. He joined it in 1991 as an assistant vice president of its treasury department.
Before that he had worked in the investment department of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York and Buenos Aires.
