| This week’s Personnel File is heavy with new hires and appointments, as seven financial institutions shore up their numbers. Several property and construction management firms also gained new employees.
Bristol County Savings Bank
Taunton-based Bristol County Savings Bank appointed Brittany Kate Jokl to the position of vice president and senior project manager. In this capacity, Jokl will be responsible for leading the bank’s enterprise project management office. Prior to her current position, Jokl was a senior program manager at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island in Providence, Rhode Island and a senior consultant with Arcadia Solutions in Burlington.
Colonial Federal Savings Bank
Quincy’s Colonial Federal Savings Bank recently held its annual meeting, during which Tracy Wilson was elected to the bank’s board of directors. A former Norfolk county assistant district attorney, Wilson has law offices in Quincy and Canton. She is a certified conciliator, mediator and currently is a bar council member for the Bar Association of Norfolk County.
Country Bank
Ware-based Country Bank has had several recent promotions:
- Mark Phillips has been appointed to first vice president of internal audit. Phillips has been with the bank for 23 years and is a certified internal auditor and certified bank auditor. He has over 40 years in the financial services industry in various positions, most recently as the director of internal audit.
- Andrew Sullivan has been promoted to small business lending officer and has been with the bank for four years. Sullivan started a charity golf tournament, “Andrew Sullivan’s Swing for a Cure,” to support cystic fibrosis research and bring awareness to the disease in 2015. Over the last three years this event has raised more than $30,000.
- Christine Witz has been promoted to retail lending officer. Witz has been with the bank for seven years, most recently as the assistant branch manager in the Charlton office.
- Sarah Yurkunas has been promoted to commercial portfolio manager. Yurkanas has been with the bank for 11 years, beginning in the loan servicing area. She then moved to a loan coordinator position which inspired her to pursue her career in the commercial lending area.
The Dowd Agencies
Holyoke-based insurance provider The Dowd Agencies welcomed Jeanne G. Kosakowski to the firm as its claims director. In her new position, Kosakowski will handle some of the personal lines claims, all of the commercial lines claims and oversee all claims in general. She is an Associate in Claims, a Certified Insurance Service Representative and a Certified Insurance Counselor and is currently working on her Certified Risk Managers Designation.
Elaine Construction Co.
Newton-based Elaine Construction Co. gained a new project executive with Jim Driscoll. Driscoll brings nearly four decades of experience to his role, with a portfolio of large, out-of-the-ground institutional and commercial building projects.
East Boston Savings Bank
Carl LaGreca has been elected lead director and Peter Scolaro has been elected to the board of directors for both Meridian Bancorp Inc. and East Boston Savings Bank. LaGreca succeeds Richard F. Fernandez, who was lead director since 2015 and as a member of the board since 2007. LaGreca will continue to be a member of Meridian Bancorp’s audit committee, a position he has held since 2009. He is a CPA at DiCicco, Gulman & Co. of Woburn. Scolaro, who has been affiliated with EBSB since 1984 as both corporator and trustee, is the director of property services for Action for Boston Community Development. An East Boston resident, Scolaro continues to maintain long-standing relationships with community business and nonprofit organizations in East Boston such as the East Boston Rotary Club, Salesian Boys & Girls Club, EB Yacht Club, EB Social Centers and EB Harbor Side Community Center.
Freedom Credit Union
Freedom Credit Union, headquartered in Springfield with nine additional branches in Western Massachusetts, appointed William Sharp as the new branch officer in Chicopee. Sharp has worked with financial institutions for 40 years, having held management positions within the banking industry prior to joining Freedom Credit Union in 2013. He is currently board chair for the Boys & Girls Club of Chicopee, which awarded him the Dr. Edward Ryan Award for board service in 2016.
HarborOne Bank
HarborOne Bank, headquartered in Brockton, has named Tom Waltke as vice president and director of small business. Waltke comes to HarborOne with more than 10 years of experience in managing sales teams and maintaining client relationships. Over the course of his career, he has transitioned from senior software engineer to managing small business and commercial lending. Prior to joining HarborOne, Waltke spent seven years at Citizens Bank where he was responsible for revenue growth and new business development.
JLL
Joe Fabiano and Michael Ciummei have been named to lead JLL’s New England Industrial Practice Group. Fabiano and Ciummei are longtime members of JLL’s suburban leasing team, with extensive experience advising tenants and landlords on a wide range of real estate needs. In their new leadership capacity, they will spearhead JLL’s efforts concerning industrial, light manufacturing, R&D, logistics and distribution space throughout New England. Together they will be responsible for running and growing the industrial brokerage business, working closely with the firm’s national industrial group. JLL also welcomed Jamey Lipscomb to the firm as executive vice president. He will specialize in representing tenants and investors in the leasing of office, R&D and industrial space throughout Greater Boston. Lipscomb joins the JLL suburban team from Transwestern where he was a partner, and brings 16 years of commercial real estate experience.
Longfellow Real Estate Partners
In Boston, Longfellow Real Estate Partners has more than doubled its staff with the hiring of four new team members and by integrating seven brought on board when the firm purchased three office and tech buildings – 100, 125 and 150 CambridgePark Drive. Longfellow’s hires in Greater Boston are: Nora Neilson, director of property management; Jennifer McCarthy, associate in accounting; Fiona Caplan, assistant property manager; Brooks Goodyear, associate in asset management; John Curran, senior associate in investments; Nora Capraro, property manager; Madison Hebb, assistant property manager; Erin Tremblay, event specialist; Mike Crossman, facilities maintenance specialist; Edwin Martinez, facilities maintenance specialist; Gezim Dervishi, facilities maintenance specialist and Reinaldo Ribeiro, facilities maintenance specialist.
Mortgage Bankers Association
The Mortgage Bankers Association awarded Thomas S. Dennard, chairman and CEO of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, with the 2018 Commercial Real Estate Finance Distinguished Service Award at the Association’s 28th annual CREF/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo held in San Diego, California. Dennard has served several terms on MBA’s board of directors, strongly supported the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, taken a leading role in establishing MBA’s young professionals group and is a longtime member and past chairman of MBA’s Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance board of governors.
The Noannet Group
The Noannet Group, developer of mixed-use properties in the Greater Boston area, has named Sujit Sitole as managing director of investments. Sitole has worked in acquisitions, asset management and project management across a wide range of property types and markets in more than a decade in the real estate investment and development industry.
Reading Cooperative Bank
Karen Tavernese was promoted to vice president at Reading Cooperative Bank. In this role, Tavernese will continue to oversee the implementation of all regulatory and compliance-related policies and procedures. She chairs the bank’s compliance committee which works with bank officers to affirm that procedures exist which strengthen the bank’s consumer compliance. As compliance officer, she supervises the BSA Analyst and manages the bank’s internal audits to ensure that RCB is in compliance with banking laws and regulations.
Riemer & Braunstein
Riemer & Braunstein, a Boston-based law firm specializing in corporate and real estate finance with additional offices in New York and Chicago, has added Raymond Estes and Kristine H.P. Hung to the firm’s real estate practice. Estes has practiced law for over 13 years. In his new role as a partner at Riemer & Braunstein, he is providing legal support and service to owners and developers in all aspects of commercial real estate acquisition, divestiture, and development. Estes has previously served as co-chair of the Legislation and Public Policy Committee of the Real Estate Section of the Boston Bar Association. He also oversaw a $56 million municipal project as chairman of the Hingham School Building Committee. Hung has extensive experience representing clients in all aspects of land use development including land acquisition and sales, zoning, permitting and environmental law. She previously practiced at Orsi, Arone, Rothenberg, Iannuzzi & Turner LLP where she represented a developer in loan transactions of up to $85 million.
The Schochet Cos.
The Schochet Cos. promoted Vice President of Finance Brian Tewksbur, to CFO. Tewksbury joined Braintree-based The Schochet Companies in 2008 as corporate controller and quickly grew into the role of vice president of finance. Prior to joining the property management firm, he worked as a manager for Novogradac & Co., a nationally recognized public accounting firm specializing in real estate and affordable housing. Tewksbury is currently CFO for all affiliated entities within The Schochet Cos.
Weston & Sampson
Weston & Sampson, a provider of design, engineering, and environmental services for public and private entities based in Peabody, promoted Hillary Lacirignola to vice president. Lacirignola has over 20 years of experience in the planning, design, construction, and evaluation of wastewater, stormwater, infrastructure management and water resource engineering projects. She has a strong knowledge of federal, state and local regulatory agency policies, procedures, and permitting requirements, and has been responsible for managing several projects. She is also involved in corporate risk management for the firm.
