Berkshire Bank appoints president, COO

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB) — Pittsfield, Massachusetts–based parent of Berkshire Bank, which has a big presence in the Utica–Rome market —  has promoted Richard Marotta to president of the bank and Sean Gray to chief operating officer of the bank.

Berkshire Bank also promoted the following executives to senior executive vice president: George Bacigalupo, Josephine Iannelli, and Linda Johnston. The bank additionally elevated eight people to the executive team, broadening the responsibilities of these leaders, Berkshire said in a news release late Thursday afternoon.

“This reorganization is a natural extension of the strong growth Berkshire has experienced and positions us well for future growth and expansion. We believe the best way to accelerate our company’s progress is to empower the next level of leadership through more engagement and greater accountability,” Michael Daly, CEO of both the parent company and bank, said.

As president of Berkshire Bank, Marotta will be responsible for all aspects of administration, risk, and infrastructure, including people and systems, and compliance and credit. He has been EVP, chief risk and administrative officer at Berkshire since 2013. Marotta joined the company as EVP, chief risk officer in 2010 from KeyBank, where he was executive vice president and group head, asset recovery, according to the release.

As COO of Berkshire Bank, Gray will be responsible for its operating teams, including retail, commercial, small business, home lending, wealth management, and insurance. Gray has been EVP, retail banking at Berkshire since 2010. He joined the bank as first VP, retail banking in 2006 from Bank of America.

The eight new members of Berkshire Bank’s executive team include Scott Houghtaling — executive VP, regional commercial leader for New York state, the release stated. He joined Berkshire as SVP, commercial leader for New York in 2014 from RBC Citizens.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp has $7.5 billion in assets and 93 full-service branch offices in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont providing personal and business banking, insurance, and wealth-management services.

Locally, Berkshire Bank ranks number 3 in deposit market share in the two-county Utica–Rome metro area with $598 million in deposits, good for a nearly 16 percent market share, through 16 branches in the region, according to the latest available FDIC data.

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