Sterling National Bank added 11 new hires to its Commercial Banking and Commercial Finance teams: James Baranello, Craig Clausen, Robert Akalski, Rich Fazio, Leo Mutchler and Gary Harkins in Long Island; Stephen Gibbs and William Farriss in the New York Metro office; Shawn Gines in Westchester; and Lisa Adams and Matthew Kelly on the West Coast.
Baranello comes to Sterling after a long career at CIBC and will act as senior managing director and senior vice president reporting to EVP and Long Island Market president, Ed Blaskey. Clausen joined as managing director and senior vice president, reporting to co-team leads and SVPs Bob Bernard and Peter Welch.
Akalski will serve as managing director and Fazio will serve as an associate managing director, reporting to co-team leads and SVPs Jim Whitehouse and Mike Varrone. Mutchler and Harkins both joined as managing directors. Harkins joined Sterling from Gold Coast Bank, while Mutchler joined from BNY Mellon. Clausen, Akalski and Fazio all previously worked at Capital One Bank.
Gibbs will serve as senior managing director and senior vice president, and become co-team leader of the Legal Services team. He was most recently a law practice lead with JPMorgan Chase. Farriss will serve as managing director, reporting to team leader and SVP Scott Morello. Farriss formerly held senior roles at Patriot National Bank and Santander Bank.
Gines joined Sterling as senior vice president and senior managing director. He was most recently with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Adams most recently worked for The Private Bank and joined Sterling as managing director and senior vice president on the Asset Based Lending team. Kelly will act as managing director and vice president on the Franchise Finance Lending team. He previously worked on the Franchise Capital group of Pacific Premier Bank.
“We are very pleased to welcome these new team members to Sterling,” said Tom Geisel, president of Corporate Banking at Sterling. “Their rich backgrounds will strengthen our current business offerings and enable the bank to establish new rapports in both our core and national markets.”
