NORWICH, N.Y. — NBT Bancorp Inc. President and CEO John H. Watt, Jr. announced he will retire, effective May 21 of this year. The company’s board of directors, after a 10-month process, approved a succession plan that will promote Scott A. Kingsley, NBT’s current CFO, to succeed Watt as president and CEO. Kingsley will also […]
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NORWICH, N.Y. — NBT Bancorp Inc. President and CEO John H. Watt, Jr. announced he will retire, effective May 21 of this year.
The company’s board of directors, after a 10-month process, approved a succession plan that will promote Scott A. Kingsley, NBT’s current CFO, to succeed Watt as president and CEO. Kingsley will also be appointed to the Norwich–based banking company’s board of directors when he assumes his new role on May 21, according to an NBT news release.
Watt will continue to serve on the board of directors and be named vice chairman in May. In that capacity, he will provide strategic support to NBT for its semiconductor-chip corridor initiatives. He will also serve as an advisor to the banking company through year’s end.
Watt became president and CEO of NBT Bancorp and its primary subsidiary NBT Bank, N.A., as well as a member of the board, in 2016.
“On behalf of the board of directors, I offer our sincere thanks to John Watt for the vision and energy he has invested in the leadership of the company and for the effective direction he has provided to the NBT team, particularly through the global pandemic,”NBT Board Chairman Martin A. Dietrich said in the release. “We are fortunate to have an aligned executive-management team with strong and experienced leaders like Scott Kingsley, Joe Stagliano, and Annette Burns who are poised to assume these top leadership roles as we move forward with this succession plan in May.”
As part of the plan, the board approved the promotion of Joseph R. Stagliano to president of NBT Bank, effective May 21. He currently serves as NBT’s president of retail community banking and chief information officer.
Annette L. Burns, NBT’s chief accounting officer, will assume the role of CFO on May 21.
Kingsley joined NBT in 2021 and has more than 35 years of experience, including 16 years as a member of the management team at Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU), where he served as CFO and then COO. He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, before joining the Carlisle Companies, Inc., a publicly traded global manufacturer and distributor, where he served in financial and operational leadership roles. Kingsley is a certified public accountant (CPA) and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at Clarkson University.
Stagliano joined NBT in 1999 and has more than 30 years of experience in the financial-services industry. While overseeing the company’s operations and retail-banking divisions, he was promoted to chief information officer and joined the executive-management team in 2006. In 2016, he assumed responsibility for retail banking and in 2018, was named president of retail banking. Prior to joining NBT, Stagliano worked atMetLife. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business and public management from SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
Burns joined NBT in 2013 with the company’s acquisition of Alliance Bancorp. A CPA, she has more than 25 years of experience in accounting and finance. She began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Burns holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from St. Bonaventure University.
NBT Bancorp has nearly $14 billion in total assets and NBT Bank has 152 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. The holding company also operates EPIC Advisors, Inc., a Rochester–based national benefits-administration firm, and NBT Insurance Agency, LLC, a Norwich–based full-service insurance agency.