MIDWEST
FirstMerit Corp. of Akron has hired William P. Richgels as its chief credit officer and an executive vice president.
Mr. Richgels joined the company, which owns the $10.3 billion-asset FirstMerit Bank, from JPMorgan Chase Bank, where he had been a senior credit executive overseeing a Midwest commercial portfolio of middle-market customers.
He has 25 years of banking experience.
MIDDLE ATLANTICTrustCo Bank Corp NY, the Glenville parent company of the $3.2 billion-asset TrustCo Bank, has hired Kevin T. Timmons as its treasurer and a vice president.
Mr. Timmons had been a senior analyst at C.L. King & Associates Inc. He covered banking and thrift companies in the Northeast, including TrustCo, for the institutional research firm.
Before that he had been a senior analyst at FAC/Equities, the equity research and investment banking division of First Albany Corp.
Earlier he had been the treasurer at Poughkeepsie Savings Bank and an analyst at Bank of New York and Barclays Bank.
First Niagara Financial Group Inc. of Lockport, N.Y., has named Frank J. Polino its interim executive vice president of consumer banking.
He succeeded Michael Giaquinto, who left the $8 billion-asset company after three years in that job.
Mr. Polino joined First Niagara in 1999 and remains its chief information officer, but Michael Mackay will fill that role until First Niagara selects a new head of consumer banking.
Mr. Mackay remains First Niagara's first vice president of operations. He joined the company in 2005.
EagleBank of Bethesda, Md., has hired Joanie Heavey as a vice president and its director of human resources.
Ms. Heavey had been the director of personnel and benefits at the National Association of Broadcasters, a Washington trade group.
EagleBank is a $766 million-asset unit of Eagle Bancorp Inc.
SOUTHEASTFirst Financial Holdings Inc. of Charleston, S.C., has promoted R. Wayne Hall to chief financial officer of the company and its $2.6 billion-asset First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Charleston.
He succeeded Susan E. Braham, who stepped down from those posts but will remain an executive vice president of the company and the chief operating officer and an executive vice president of the thrift until her retirement this year.
Mr. Hall joined First Financial in December as its executive vice president of financial management. Before that he had been an executive vice president and the chief risk officer of Provident Bank of Maryland.
He has 20 years of financial institutions experience.
First National Bank of the South of Spartanburg, S.C., has hired John Higdon as a senior vice president and the director of its newly-formed wholesale lending division.
Mr. Higdon was the wholesale mortgage director and a vice president at First National Bank of Christianburg, Va. (The two banks are unrelated.) He has 19 years of mortgage lending experience.
First National Bank of the South is a $467 million-asset unit of First National Bancshares Inc.
WESTPremier Service Bank of Riverside, Calif., has hired Jessica W. Lee as its chief financial officer and an executive vice president.
Ms. Lee joined the $137 million-asset bank from the $228 million-asset Guaranty Bank of California, where she had the same title and job.
Before that she had worked for six years at Trust Bank of Monterey Park as a senior vice president and its director of operations.
