Cape Ann Savings Bank will have a new leader next summer when Marianne Smith takes over as president from Robert J. Gillis Jr., who will retire after more than 45 years at the Gloucester-based bank.
President since 2017, Gillis will retire on July 30, the bank said in a statement. Cape Ann Savings Bank’s board of trustees named Smith to succeed him. She is currently the bank’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Gillis started at Cape Ann Savings Bank in 1975 and was a retail lender for many years before joining the commercial loan department in 2007 as a business lender. He was elected as a corporator of Cape Ann Savings Bank in 1990 and as a trustee in 1996.
“Bob Gillis has served the bank in many capacities for over 45 years and is a pillar of this community,” Harold “Bucky” Rogers, Cape Ann Savings’ former president and current trustee, said in a statement. “He has been an inspiration to all of us who have had the honor and pleasure to serve with him. We will be forever grateful to Bob for his dedication and the leadership that he has brought to the Cape Ann Savings Bank for all these years. We wish him the very best in his retirement and are extremely pleased that he will remain a trustee of the bank.”
Gillis is board president of Harborlight Community Partners, a non-profit affordable housing organization, and a board member of the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund. He is also a member and past president of the Rockport Rotary Club and the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce.
After working at the bank as a teller in the late 1980s, Smith rejoined Cape Ann Savings Bank as vice president and treasurer in 2013. She has over thirty years of banking and regulatory experience.
Smith has worked as a bank examiner with the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks and in accounting and finance positions at multiple local institutions. She is board president of the Cape Ann YMCA, an advisory board member of the Massachusetts Bankers Association Women in Banking, a board member of the DDS North Shore citizen’s advisory board, as well as an avid supporter of the organization, Autism Speaks.
“Marianne and I have worked closely together since I became president of the bank in January of 2017,” Gillis said in the statement. “She and I have focused on doing what is best for our customers, employees, and community every day. She brings numerous skills to the table and a great work ethic. I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with her since she arrived at the bank more than seven years ago and am confident that she is the right leader for the organization for years to come.”
