NEW ENGLAND
Liberty Bank of Middletown, Conn., has hired Chandler J. Howard as its president and chief executive officer.
The hiring followed a 10-month national search conducted by a committee of Liberty directors.
Mr. Howard is expected to join Liberty in mid-September. He is currently the president and CEO of First City Fund Corp. in New Haven.
Before that he had been the president and CEO of Connecticut Innovations Inc., a quasi-public agency that promotes technology growth in the state. Earlier he had directed consumer banking in Connecticut, upstate New York, and northeastern Pennsylvania at Bank of America Corp. Before that he had been its president for Connecticut.
He has 33 years of banking experience.
Liberty Bank has more than $2.5 billion of assets.
Gorham Savings Bank of Maine has hired Gren Blackall as its chief deposit officer.
Mr. Blackall was managing director at Clark Consulting Inc., a unit of Aegon NV. He started the bank business solutions area at Clark. Before that he had been an executive vice president at Bremer Bank in St. Paul for eight years.
He has 25 years of banking experience.
The $739 million-asset Gorham Savings is the sole subsidiary of Gorham Bancorp MHC.
MIDDLE ATLANTICUnivest Corp. in Souderton, Pa., has hired Jeffrey M. Schweitzer as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
He will start his new job Oct. 1 and will succeed Wallace H. Bieler, who will retire in January.
Among Mr. Schweitzer's responsibilities will be managing financial risks and developing and implementing strategic financial planning. He previously worked at Ernst & Young LLP for 12 years.
Until his retirement, Mr. Bieler will remain senior executive vice president, chief operations officer, and corporate secretary for the $2 billion-asset Univest Corp. and its subsidiary, Univest National Bank and Trust Co.
