“Create Your Balance” is not only the new tagline for United Bank; it’s also the motto Dena Hall lives and works by. The regional president and chief marketing officer balances her roles inside the company alongside her roles as the president of the United Bank Foundation Massachusetts and the United Bank Foundation Connecticut, as well as being a mother of two.
“Our company tagline is ‘create your balance,’ so I try really hard every day to figure out what I can do that benefits both my company and my family, and how to balance all that as a working mom, a professional and a community volunteer,” she said.
Dena Hall received her bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism from UMass Amherst. After graduation, the Agawam native started working in the nonprofit sector as a marketing manager. Before coming to United, she had a marketing role at a local bank for eight years, which inspired her to attend The New England School for Financial Studies at Babson College, offered by the Massachusetts Bankers Association, and the National School of Banking at Fairfield University.
“Being a marketing person and working for a bank, [I wanted] to have a broader understanding of how the banking sector functions, and what impact marketing has on the bigger picture of working for and running a bank,” she said.
Hall then moved to United Bank, where she helped lead United Bank and Rockville Bank through their merger and continues to oversee the branding changes. Her leadership in the transitional time for the two banks led Bill Crawford, CEO of United Bank, to promote Hall to regional president.
“Dena gets people to work together and helps find the problems,” Crawford said about what makes Hall a great leader. “She formulates a plan to fix problems; she figures out how to make it better.”
Hall calls the rebranding after the merger a once-in-a-life time experience and one she considers her greatest accomplishment – but her favorite part of her job remains working with customers, employees and the community.
“What I like the most is that I can be out in the community, working with a nonprofit organization or evaluating their need for grant funds, or talking with customers about their experience here at United, or working with our employees,” she said.
Hall is a board member of Bay State Health Systems and the Regional Development Authority in her community, as well as a volunteer at her children’s school, reading stories and teaching art. She is also an avid runner and cyclist.
“Generally, when you look at bank presidents, regional presidents or chief marketing officers, 41 is probably on the younger side, so I feel like I’ve accomplished a fair amount in a pretty short time,” she said.
