Page 27 - BusinessWest January 22, 2024

Lending Perspective
PeoplesBank Restructures Leadership Roles, Plans Further Growth
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
“This is a recognition of Brian’s success and talent and the timing of the growth that we’re going through.”
TOM SENECAL
Tom Senecal has been president, CEO, and chairman of Peo- plesBank since 2016, and moving forward, he’s shedding the
‘president’ part of that title. But that doesn’t mean he’s slowing down.
“It’s more of a transition of the daily responsibilities,” he said, explaining why Brian Canina has been promoted to president and chief operating officer, and Hayes Murray has been promoted to executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer, taking on some of Canina’s former duties.
“I reassigned to Brian three or four different responsibilities, but when you look at both of us, it’s still a lot on both our plates,” said Senecal, who retains his CEO and chairman titles. “This is a recog- nition of Brian’s success and talent and the timing of the growth that we’re going through. And quite frankly, the operational side of things needs more daily attention. And Brian really has the fortitude, the wherewithal, the work ethic, and the strategy to execute all the daily operational things. So it just made sense at this point in time to transition those responsibilities.”
After working together for almost 15 years — Canina as CFO and controller, Senecal as president and CEO — it just made sense to reward Canina for him efforts, Senecal added, “and, quite frankly,
to make sure that we have our eyes on the ball as we continue to grow.”
Canina said he has prepared for this transition over the past year or two, operating in more than just a CFO role, and more like a COO, driving strategic initiatives and monitoring and managing the strategic plan of the bank along with Senecal.
“That will continue to be a focus of mine going forward, taking more responsibility away from Tom in terms of administratively managing the strategic plan and working with him as he identifies other strategies that he’s working on,” Canina explained. “So it’s not really a significant change; it’s something that we’ve been working toward, and with the size of the bank and how we’ve grown, it was a good timing to make this more formal change.”
The leadership changes will provide Senecal with more opportu- nities to plan and manage the growth and revenue activities of the bank, including retail operations, consumer lending, small business, municipals, and commercial and industrial divisions. Canina will continue to be responsible for finance, facilities, PeoplesWealth, the Business Solutions Group, and information technology. In his new role, he will also be responsible for human resources, marketing, and corporate responsibility.
“I’ve kind of shed some meeting responsibilities and a few of
the operational responsibilities, but my focus is on growth,” Sene- cal said. “We have both an organic strategy of growing the bank by opening branches, and also non-organic opportunities. We’re con- stantly having conversations with other banks, and we will never be bought or sold, but we are looking at opportunities with other banks that might want to partner with PeoplesBank.”
Connecticut in particular continues to present growth opportu- nities. After adding branches in East Granby and Suffield through acquisition, then expanding the bank’s branch footprint into South Windsor and West Hartford, the bank’s board of directors has approved plans to open banking centers in Glastonbury and Avon, in
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