Anthony Worden will become Greenfield Cooperative Bank's president in January

Anthony Worden will become Greenfield Cooperative Bank’s next president in January and then take over as CEO when current leader Michael Tucker retires in 2022.

The transition schedule is part of an overall succession plan for the bank that the board of directors adopted some time ago, Board Chair Kevin O’Neil said in a statement. Worden will be president and chief operating officer throughout 2021, while Tucker remains as CEO.

“Tony is highly qualified for this role and has 22-plus years’ experience in community banking,” O’Neil said in the statement. “He has been part of Greenfield Coop’s leadership team since 2009 and has been one of the drivers for our success. We look forward to his leadership of the bank in the coming decade.”

Worden has worked with Tucker in addressing the challenges of the COVID pandemic within the bank and the local communities, the bank said in the statement.

“Tony has already been leading a large part of our bank team,” Tucker said. “This includes his recent work to ensure the bank was able to offer Paycheck Protection Program loans for businesses of all sizes during this pandemic. He has also played a key role in helping the bank reach out to consumers and businesses to keep GCB focused on the future of our local communities and our bank.”

Worden is a director and chair of the governance committee for the United Way of Franklin County and a former director of the Franklin County Community Development Corporation. He said that he was honored and excited to take over his new role at the bank.

“GCB has long been a supporter of small business and consumers in Hampshire and Franklin counties, and more recently business customers in the Hampden county market,” Worden said. “It is my intention to continue this tradition.”

Tucker will retire in 2022 after more than 41 years in banking. While in law school, he worked as a teller at the former Springfield Institution for Savings and spent nearly 20 years there as a lawyer, becoming senior vice president and general counsel. He then worked at Easthampton Savings Bank as senior vice president and chief operating officer. He was recruited by Greenfield Cooperative Bank in July 2002 to become the bank’s president.

Michael Tucker will retire from Greenfield Cooperative Bank in 2022.

“Mr. Tucker’s leadership has been invaluable in the bank’s growth and success for the past two decades,” O’Neil said.

During Tucker’s time as president, Greenfield Cooperative Bank grew from three offices in 2002 with $175 million in assets and 35 employees to having 11 offices, $750 million in assets and more than 100 employees, the bank said in the statement, adding that Tucker was instrumental in the 2015 merger of Northampton Cooperative Bank as a division of Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Tucker is currently completing his term as a director and chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s audit committee. He was also a longtime director and state chairperson for the Massachusetts Bankers Association and the Cooperative Bank Employees’ Retirement Association.