NEW ENGLAND
Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc. of Pittsfield, Mass., has hired John J. Howard as the executive vice president of retail banking for the company and its $2.1 billion-asset Berkshire Bank.
Mr. Howard was a senior vice president and the consumer market executive for New Hampshire and Cambridge, Mass., at Bank of America. Before that he had been a vice president and a group manager at FleetBoston Financial Corp., which Bank of America Corp. bought in 2004.
Earlier in his 17-year banking career he had worked at KeyCorp for 11 years in various jobs.
Berkshire Hills Bancorp also has hired Shepard D. Rainie as the chief risk officer and a senior vice president of the company and the bank.
Mr. Rainie was a senior vice president of credit review at Bank of America. Before that he had been a managing director of strategic risk management and credit review at Fleet Bank.
He has 31 years of banking experience.
MIDWESTCamco Financial Corp. of Cambridge, Ohio, said Richard C. Baylor would become the chairman of the company and its $1 billion-asset Advantage Bank on Nov. 10, a day after Larry A. Caldwell retires from those jobs.
Mr. Baylor will remain the chief executive officer and president of Camco and the bank. He joined the company in 1998 as an executive vice president and its chief operating officer, was promoted to president in 2000, and traded the chief operating job for that of CEO a year later.
Mr. Caldwell has been chairman of Camco Financial since its creation in 1970 and has been with the bank since 1958.
Capitol Bancorp Ltd. of Lansing, Mich., has made John C. Smythe the president of its Great Lakes region.
He will oversee the company's 13 banking units in Michigan, its three in Indiana, and its one in Ohio. (The $3.7 billion-asset Capitol owns 49 banks in all.)
Mr. Smythe will remain the chief executive officer of the flagship Capitol National Bank, which he joined shortly after its formation founding in 1982. He has been succeeded as president of the bank by Paula Cunningham.
Ms. Cunningham, a new hire, joined after 25 years at Lansing Community College, the last six as its president.
First Home Savings Bank, a $228 million-asset unit of First Bancshares Inc. of Mountain Grove, Mo., has hired Daniel P. Katzfey as its chief lending officer and an executive vice president.
Mr. Katzfey was the senior lender and an executive vice president at Village Bank of Springfield. Earlier he had held a variety of jobs over three years at Sun Security Bank of Ellington, including senior loan officer and compliance officer.
SOUTHEASTFirst Financial Holdings Inc. of Charleston, S.C., said R. Wayne Hall would become the executive vice president of financial management of the company and its $2.6 billion-asset First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Charleston on Dec. 1.
Mr. Hall was the chief risk officer and an executive vice president at Provident Bank of Maryland in Baltimore.
He has 20 years of financial services experience.
