Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc., the parent company of Berkshire Bank, a socially-responsible community-dedicated bank with locations primarily in New England and New York, today announced that Heather Lashway, a ten-year Berkshire veteran was promoted to Senior Vice President Director of Retail Banking reporting to CEO Nitin Mhatre. Tami Gunsch, current Senior Executive Vice President Head of Consumer Banking is stepping down from her position as of June 30, 2021 to spend more time with her family. After June 30th, Ms. Gunsch will stay on as a consultant for a period of time to ensure a smooth transition to her successors, Ms. Lashway and another to be named soon.
“I want to thank Tami for her years of hard work, dedication, professionalism and commitment to all of Berkshire Bank’s customers and employees. On behalf of the entire Berkshire Bank family we wish Tami all the best in this next chapter.” stated Nitin Mhatre, CEO of Berkshire.
In her role as Director of Retail Banking Ms. Lashway will be responsible for all aspects of the retail banking consumer experience, including branch banking, branch and deposit operations, call center, virtual teller, MyBankers and Sales & Service Delivery. She will work to optimize, digitize and enhance the Bank’s retail banking strategy in support of Berkshire’s Exciting Strategic Transformation (BEST) plan to deliver enhanced value for all its stakeholders.
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“Heather is a proven leader with deep knowledge of Berkshire Bank, our employees, customers and communities. She has consistently demonstrated superior performance in key roles and that experience will be instrumental in the execution of our BEST plan where we will optimize, digitize and enhance our consumer banking franchise to deliver a best-in-class customer experience,” added Mhatre.
Ms. Lashway is a senior leader with more than 25 years of retail banking expertise, most recently serving as Berkshire’s Senior Vice President Retail Distribution where she oversaw the Bank’s sales and service delivery initiatives. Prior to joining Berkshire Bank, Heather spent 11 years with Citizens Bank in senior Retail Banking roles inclusive of Director of Sales, Division Training Manager and Regional Sales Manager. Ms. Lashway holds a Bachelors in Accounting & Finance from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont and was previously an Albany Business Review 40 under 40 honoree.
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