It’s important to be good. Sometimes it’s even better to be lucky.
That’s why Bob Rivers of Eastern Bank That might explain how the bank brought on board its new chief financial officer, David Rosato.
Boston-based Eastern Bank has been working with headhunting firm Korn Ferry for about a year to find a successor to the bank’s current CFO, Jim Fitzgerald, who turns 67 in August and is set to become a senior adviser at that point.
Meanwhile, rival Berkshire Bank said in May Rosato will step down from his role as CFO. Rosato left the company to “pursue other interests” after joining in early 2023. Rosato previously served as CFO of the much larger People’s United Financial, but left in 2022 after M&T Bank acquired People’s United.
Acquiring a CFO with public company experience and deep knowledge of the New England market was a major win for Rivers, who has been steadily making acquisitions in recent years to expand Eastern’s scale.
“We have a lot of respect for him,” Rivers said of Rosato, 62. “He has a lot of experience in big banking and public companies. He brings exactly the experience we need to better understand the mountain we’re trying to climb.”
In that vein, Eastern completed its acquisition of Cambridge Trust last weekend. Cambridge Trust CEO Dennis Sheehan became Eastern’s CEO, and the bank’s longtime CEO Rivers is now executive chairman. Eastern’s president, Quincy Miller, is about 10 years younger than the pair but remains the favorite to succeed them. Now, with $25 billion in assets, Eastern is the largest Massachusetts-based retail bank.
Mr. Rosato will start on Aug. 1 and report to Mr. Sheehan. Mr. Sheehan is a longtime executive in Connecticut who has already relocated to the Boston area for the Berkshire job.
“We had found some good people, some people that we really liked, and we were close to hiring some of them, and then all of a sudden, David became available,” Rivers said. “The timing was incredibly lucky.”
Contact Jon Chesto at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow us John Chest.
