First Niagara promotes White to executive management team

BUFFALO, N.Y. — First Niagara Financial Group (NASDAQ: FNFG) announced that it has promoted Kate White to executive vice president and managing director of human resources and corporate communications. She will join the company’s executive management team, reporting to Gary M. Crosby, president and CEO. White previously served as senior vice president.

White joined First Niagara in 2009 as the human-resources business partner for the banking company’s Partnership Services Group, and was promoted to senior VP, managing director of human resources in 2013. Prior to joining First Niagara, she was with HSBC for more than 10 years in various human resources and talent-management roles, including corporate human-resources director. White earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and is a Western New York native, according to the banking company’s news release.

First Niagara, through its subsidiary, First Niagara Bank, N.A., is a multi-state community-oriented bank with about 410 branches, $39 billion in assets, $28 billion in deposits, and about 5,600 employees across New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. 

First Niagara Bank ranked fourth in deposit market share in the 16-county Central New York market, according to June 30, 2014 FDIC statistics, the latest available. The bank had $2.2 million in deposits, good for an 8.4 percent share of the CNY market’s total deposits.