BRIDGEPORT — People’s United Financial Inc., the holding company for People’s United Bank, has made it official: John P. (Jack) Barnes is no longer “interim” anything.
On July 22 the bank announced that the 54-year-old Barnes, who had functioned as interim president and CEO since the departure of former CEO Philip R. Sherringham in April, had acceded to the top job. He will also serve as a member of the financial-services company’s board of directors.
People's United also announced last month that it would acquire Smithtown Bancorp, based in Long Island, N.Y., and North Andover, Massachusetts-based LSB Corp. for a combined $156 million. The bank has said it is looking for takeovers as lenders continue to fail nationwide.
According to People’s Chairman George P. Carter, Barnes “has a broad banking background and extensive experience with bank acquisitions and integration — both as a leader at People’s United and at Chittenden Corp.,” where Barnes worked when the Vermont bank was acquired by People’s in 2008.
“In the three months that Jack has led People’s United as interim president and CEO, he has clearly demonstrated his strong leadership skills and the ability to execute on our strategy of delivering growth and increasing shareholder value,” Carter added. “Along with our solid second quarter earnings results, we also announced last week two strategic acquisitions that extend our footprint as the largest bank headquartered in New England even further into the New York metro and Boston area markets.”
“People’s United benefits from a number of unique characteristics in the present environment, including our enviable footprint, strong balance sheet, solid asset quality and many growth prospects, and I am excited about the opportunity to fully realize the bank’s potential,” Barnes said.
his aggressive pursuits of acquisitions.
Barnes joined People’s as senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer following the Chittenden acquisition. In that role he managed IT, operations, real estate and business services.
Barnes joined Chittenden Bank in 1983 after five years with the FDIC in Boston. He was promoted to senior vice president and chief credit policy officer in 1988. In 1990, he was named to head the bank’s Credit Policy and Administration division. In 2002, he was appointed executive vice president in charge of the newly formed Chittenden Services Group, which included IT, operations and other centralized services for the corporation.
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