Mercantile Bank of Arkansas, the Little Rock unit of Mercantile Bancshares in St. Louis, appointed Raymond E. Skelton chairman and chief executive officer and Robert F. Birch Jr. president.
Mr. Skelton had been head of community banking at Mercantile Bank of St. Louis. He joined the bank in 1995 as a senior credit officer for community banking in St. Louis.
Before joining Mercantile, Mr. Skelton had headed the consumer services group at Indiana National Bank in Indianapolis, which he joined in 1970.
Mr. Birch has been an executive at Mercantile Bank of Arkansas since 1970, when it was known as Twin City Bank. As president, he leads retail delivery and lending operations.
Mr. Birch's previous post was executive vice president in charge of business banking and lending.
NEW ENGLAND
Curry College, Milton, Mass., named Mark A. Osborne, chairman and chief executive of Quincy-based Hibernia Savings Bank, to its board of trustees. He will also be on the college's finance committee.
Curry is an independent, four-year, liberal arts institution established in 1879.
MIDWEST
Mark Twain Bancshares, St. Louis, promoted two executives to regional president, gave another regional president an additional post, and named a president of its downtown St. Louis branch.
Thomas Fitzgerald was promoted to president of Mark Twain Bank State, a branch bank in St. Louis, and will remain regional president of the south county and downtown St. Louis banks.
Darrell Roegner was promoted to regional president - overseeing operations in St. Charles, Lincoln, and Warren counties - from president of the St. Charles bank office.
Michael Scully, who remains president of the Creve Coeur bank, was promoted to regional president, also overseeing the Ladue bank.
Stephanie Corley, a commercial lender with the bank since 1992, was promoted to president of the downtown St. Louis bank.
Commerce Bank, Kansas City, Mo., a unit of Commerce Bancshares, promoted two executives to vice president.
Peter Arendt was named vice president and commercial loan manager in the agribusiness department. He had been an assistant vice president overseeing the agribusiness loan portfolio.
W. Wes Blanton was named vice president and commercial lending manager in the business banking department. He is responsible for lending to businesses in the northern region.
First National Bank of Ohio, the lead subsidiary of Akron-based FirstMerit Corp., promoted Alana Fitzpatrick to private banking officer for the northern region of Ohio.
Ms. Fitzpatrick joined the bank last year as a paraprofessional.
MIDDLE ATLANTIC
Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group Inc., New York, named Joseph P. Shanahan president and chief executive officer, replacing Charles W. Daggs 3d, who left the firm.
In addition, executive vice president Edwin McGuinn resigned.
Mr. Shanahan, 49, had been executive vice president and chief operating officer at Rodman & Renshaw since January. "My immediate objective is to seek to return Rodman to profitability," he said.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Shanahan had been a co-founder and executive vice president of Keane Securities Co. He had also been executive vice president at a subsidiary of Advest, Marketiming Inc., and before that chief financial officer of Jesup & Lamont, a brokerage.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York appointed two officers.
Stefan Walter was named bank supervision officer in the surveillance and report review department. And Joseph S. Tracy was named a research officer in the domestic research department.
Mr. Walter had returned recently from a two-year leave of absence, during which he worked in the secretariat of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision at the Bank for International Settlements. He joined the New York Fed in July 1991 as a financial analyst in the banking studies department.
Mr. Tracy had joined the domestic research department in August from a job as associate professor of economics at Columbia University in New York. He had previously been an associate professor at Yale University.
Shoppers Charge Accounts Co., Mahwah, N.J., the private-label card division of Hubco Inc., rehired Robert Brennan as an assistant vice president and account executive.
Mr. Brennan had been a credit executive at Barneys New York in Lyndhurst, N.J., since 1992. Before that, he had worked 19 years in credit management and sales for Shoppers Charge.
Hubco is a $3 billion-asset bank holding company based in Mahwah.
WEST
Bank of America, San Francisco, promoted Valerie M. Crane to executive vice president.
She heads BankAmerica Corp.'s diversity development group and recently took responsibility for forming an internal marketing group in human resources.
She previously managed retail and marketing units in the commercial banking division.
