Executive Changes: National City Of Ind. Hires Vieth As Bank Chairman

National City Bancshares in Evansville, Ind., has hired a former top executive of a bigger rival - one that negotiated early last year to buy the $2.1 billion-asset company and then was bought itself.

He is William E. Vieth, 58, formerly of $7.2 billion-asset CNB Bancshares in Evansville. Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati bought CNB in October.

Mr. Vieth has become chairman of National City's lead bank, which will soon be its only bank. He once played the same role at CNB.

He was CNB's president from 1985 to 1990. Then, when it merged its subsidiary banks, he became president and chief executive officer of the surviving Citizens Bank. In 1994 he also became that bank's chairman.

He retired from those posts at the end of 1996 but continued as a director of the bank, which CNB renamed Civitas Bank, until October. He remains secretary of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission and director of the Evansville Industrial Foundation.

As chairman of $933 million-asset National City Bank, Mr. Vieth succeeded Roger M. Duncan, who will remain CEO until yearend.

That is when it will absorb the company's 11 other banks. At that time Michael T. Vea, the holding company's president, CEO, and chairman, will succeed Mr. Duncan as the bank's CEO and become its president as well. Mr. Duncan will become the manager of its central region, which will include 22 of the present 66 branches.


New Century Bank in Chicago has hired Robert P. Noel Jr. to lead its business banking division as a senior vice president.Mr. Noel, who has 18 years of banking experience, will assist business clients with commercial loans based on collateral and cash flow; with merger and acquisition transactions; and with leasing and cash management.

He came from Old Kent Bank of Grand Rapids, Mich. He was a vice president in the bank's commercial lending department in Chicago.

New Century Bank has $55 million of assets.


MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Lakeland Bancorp in Oak Ridge, N.J., has hired Louis Luddecke as executive vice president and chief operating officer, a newly created post.Mr. Luddecke was executive vice president and chief financial officer at Metropolitan State Bank in Montville, N.J. Before joining Metropolitan in its organizational stages in 1987, he was a vice president at Horizon Bank in Morristown, N.J.

He began his banking career at the Bank of Passaic and Clifton, which was purchased by Valley Bank of Passaic, N.J., in 1991.

Lakeland Bancorp has $830 million of assets.


SOUTHEAST

Silicon Valley Bank has rehired Frank Tower as a senior vice president and relationship manager in its Reston, Va., office.Mr. Tower will manage a team serving technology companies and developing new business relationships in the Washington, D.C., area.

He left Silicon Valley Bank a year ago to work as a partner at Blue Rock Capital LP, a venture capital firm in Wilmington, Del.

Mr. Tower had first joined the bank in 1992 as an analyst in its East Coast headquarters, in Boston. He helped establish the Reston office four years ago and became its manager in 1997.

Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bancshares in Santa Clara, Calif., has $3.6 billion of assets.


SOUTHWEST

Southwest Bank of Texas in Houston has hired Brad A. Bowman as a vice president in the investment services department.Mr. Bowman will work as a stockbroker and financial planner in the bank's Rosenberg, Tex., banking center. He came from the Rosenberg office of St. Louis-based Edward Jones Investment.

Southwest Bank of Texas is a subsidiary of $2.85 billion-asset Southwest Bancorporation of Texas.

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