SOUTHEAST
SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta has hired Laura Kaplan as a managing director and the head of its private wealth management legal specialty group.
Ms. Kaplan oversaw Texas and Florida as the head of the Southeast region for Citigroup Inc.'s private bank law firm group. She joined Citi in 1998 as the deputy head of global relationship banking for Latin America. She will be based in Miami.
MIDDLE ATLANTICPNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh has promoted Gordon M. Cooley to regional president of western Maryland for PNC Bank.
Mr. Cooley will remain an executive vice president for the bank in Frederick, Md. As regional president he will oversee growth opportunities for the bank in three counties: Frederick, Washington, and Allegheny. He joined PNC in 2007 when it bought Mercantile Bankshares Corp., where he was the deputy general counsel. Before that he had been a senior vice president, the general counsel, and corporate secretary of F & M Bancorp until Mercantile bought F & M in 2003.
He will start his new job March 1 and report to Michael N. Herreld, the Washington regional president.
Mr. Cooley will succeed O. James Talbott 2nd, who will retire, PNC said. Mr. Talbott will remain with the company until June 30 to help with the transition. He had joined PNC in 2007 from Mercantile, where he headed the commercial banking group and was the chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Farmers and Mechanics Bank, a Mercantile subsidiary. Earlier he had overseen mergers and acquisitions and the operations reorganization of Mercantile Safe-Deposit and Trust Bank. Mr. Talbott joined Mercantile in 1965 as a collector.
SOUTHWESTGuaranty Bank of Dallas has hired John Petrey as its chief information officer.
Mr. Petrey was an executive vice president and the chief information officer of TD Banknorth, which he joined in 2001. Before that he had been a senior vice president and the account director of financial services at Alltel Information Systems, where he had worked since 1987.
WESTCity National Bank of Beverly Hills has hired Ernesto Alvarez as a vice president and private client adviser.
Mr. Alvarez was a senior private banker in the wealth management group at Wells Fargo & Co. in Encino. Before that he was a private client adviser and relationship manager at Bank of America Corp. in Pasadena.
He will report to Kevin McCarthy, the senior vice president and manager of private client services.
