David Lentini will retire from Pittsfield-based Berkshire Bank at the end of the year after working for more than 40 years in the banking industry.
A major highlight of Lentini’s career was his effort to help re-launch Connecticut Bank and Trust Co. in 2001. He led the institution through an aggressive growth period, with almost $300 million in assets and eight locations by 2011. Lentini came to Berkshire Bank when it merged with CBT earlier this year.
He will remain head of the bank’s Connecticut advisory board. After Lentini retires, Sheryl McQuade, senior vice president of commercial banking, and Susan Chamberlain, recently named first vice president of retail banking to oversee branch operations, will lead the bank’s Connecticut franchise.
"We are truly grateful to David Lentini for his steady hand and guidance during the merger of our two banks," Michael P. Daly, Berkshire Bank president and CEO, said in a statement. "David has incredible integrity and his reputation in the Connecticut banking community is near-legendary. We are so appreciative that we will be able to continue to rely on his expertise as we expand in the Connecticut market."
Lentini began his banking career at the original Connecticut Bank and Trust Co., where he spent 21 years in various capacities. He left in 1986 to serve as senior vice president and head of operations at Northeast Savings Bank. In 1988, he started the Bank of South Windsor and became its first president in 1989. That institution grew past the $100 million mark in its first three years of operation.
In 1993, Lentini joined New England Bank in Windsor, Conn., then operating under a cease-and-desist from the FDIC, and led an intense 11-month effort to restore the bank to good health. Lentini’s efforts resulted in its successful sale to Webster Bank in 1999, where he then spent two years.
In 2007, Lentini was named a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and served for five years there, three of those as audit committee chairman.
Lentini has served on the boards of the Connecticut Bankers Association and the Connecticut Community Bankers Association. He is chairman of the Board of Renbrook School, and a director of St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. He holds the post of lead director of The Connecticut Water Co. and is a director of Cooper Atkins Corp. He holds a master’s in management science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a graduate of the school of banking at the University of Wisconsin.
