FirstMerit Corporation announced the appointment of Kevin M. Leissring as president and CEO, FirstMerit Wisconsin. Leissring will have responsibility for and oversight of FirstMerit’s commercial banking operations in the state of Wisconsin, pending the closing of FirstMerit’s announced acquisition of Citizens Republic Bancorp. He will report to David G. Goodall, executive vice president and chief commercial banking officer.

Prior to joining FirstMerit, Leissring served as executive vice president, managing director of commercial lending for Town Bank, a Wintrust Community Bank, and was responsible for the commercial banking team assisting middle-market Wisconsin companies. Previously, he was a senior vice president and market executive of commercial banking for Bank of America. He began his banking career in 1977 at Midland Bank Milwaukee and has held business and commercial banking positions at American National Bank, Bank One and JPMorgan Chase.

“I am pleased that Kevin has joined FirstMerit as head of our commercial banking efforts in Wisconsin, a state I know well from my time as president and CEO of Bank One Wisconsin,” said Paul G. Greig, chairman, president and CEO of FirstMerit Corporation. “I’ve known Kevin since we both worked at American National Bank in the early 1990s and we continued working together as American National became Bank One and Chase. I welcome working with him again and look forward to his leadership in his home state.”

FirstMerit is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Akron, Ohio, with assets of $14.9 billion. FirstMerit provides a complete range of banking and other financial services to consumers and businesses.