Berkshire Bank has named Nitin Mhatre its new CEO. Mhatre was head of Webster Bank’s community bank until October.

Mhatre will begin his role with Berkshire Bank on Jan. 29, the bank said in a statement. He will be CEO of both the bank and its parent company and will also be a member of the board of directors.

Berkshire began searching for a new leader after Richard Marotta resigned in August. Sean Gray, who has been serving as acting CEO since then, will continue in his roles as the bank’s president and chief operating officer.

Mhatre was named CEO following a national search conducted by the Berkshire’s board with the executive search firm Spencer Stuart.

“The board is confident that Mr. Mhatre is the ideal hire to propel the long-term strategic success of Berkshire, while recognizing the transformation of the banking industry in the 21st century with changing customer expectations and demands of the digital revolution,” the bank said in the statement.

Mhatre has 25 years of community and global banking experience. He was most recently the executive vice president of community banking at Webster Bank, where he was a member of the executive team and led its consumer and business banking businesses. In this role, he was responsible for profitable growth of the community banking segment at the $31 billion bank and led a diverse team of more than 1,500 employees, Berkshire said in the statement.

Webster had announced in October that it ended Mhatre’s tenure as head of community banking.

Before Webster, Mhatre spent more than 13 years at Citi Group in various leadership roles across consumer-related businesses globally. He has been on the board of the Consumer Bankers Association since 2014 and was chairman of the board from 2019 to 2020. He is also on the board of Junior Achievement of Southwest New England, headquartered in Hartford.

“Nitin is a forward-thinking leader who is passionate about community banking and is committed to our mission to serve our customers and local communities with a values-based purpose,” Bill Dunlaevy, Berkshire’s board chair, said in the statement. “He brings to Berkshire a proven record of building a customer-centric culture, developing and delivering on transformational strategic plans and performance-driven results.”

Mhatre said in the statement that he was looking forward to working with Gray and the bank’s leadership team “to engage and inspire our bankers, customers, communities and shareholders as we deepen our commitment to be a leading environmentally, socially, and integrity-driven community bank to foster innovation, deliver an exceptional customer experience and improve financial performance.”

“I am humbled and honored to join Berkshire on its 175-year banking journey, and to be the first CEO hired from outside the bank since its transformation to a public company in 2000,” Mhatre said. “Berkshire is a vibrant, values-guided, community-dedicated institution with a tremendous history of caring for its customers and employees through its execution of its mission, BeFIRST values and keen sense of corporate purpose.”

Board member Sylvia Maxfield, who led the CEO search committee, said the bank was fortunate to have Mhatre join the bank.

“We look forward to working with him to further leverage the Bank’s strengths, while seizing new innovative initiatives, to create New England’s most trusted community bank and position us to maximize future opportunities for our customers and shareholders,” Maxfield said.