Fleet names Gilroy regional president

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 15, 2000 by McChesney, Charles

SYRACUSE - Fleet has named Greg Gilroy to replace Chris Papayanakos as regional president for Central New York.

Gilroy, a native of Utica who lives in Manlius, takes over six weeks after Papayanakos departed for M&T Bank.

Gilroy will oversee Fleet's mid-market banking operations, lending to companies with sales greater than $10 million a year. He has been with Fleet since 1993, after nearly a decade with Marine Midland, now HSBC.

Fleet's Syracuse office oversees operations in 17 counties, from Malone to Binghamton. The area includes the Mohawk Valley. Gilroy's primary focus will be on handling the middle market and leading the office's team of 14. Noting that Fleet is already a dominant player in the field, Gilroy says, "I don't think there is going to be significant change" in the way in which Fleet deals with its customers. "They are," he says, "too hard to come by."

Gilroy does say that changing technology and banking products made available by Fleet's large size (the parent bank, FleetBoston Financial, is now the country's seventh largest, with assets around $180 billion) will lead the business to continue to evolve. "The product set we have today is far different" from what Gilroy recalls being able to offer early in his career at Fleet, he says.

However, Gilroy doubts the "close relationship" between Fleet and its midmarket customers will be altered. "We are trying to do the fight things," he says. Because of that, he doubts that M&T Bank will capture many accounts, despite hiring away Papayanakos. Asked what percentage of the former regional president's accounts he expects to lose to M&T, Gilroy says, "We expect to keep 100 percent."

He says that when Fleet underwent a contraction in the mid-1990s, it managed to hold onto 100 percent of its mid-market clients in Utica, in spite of the tremendous turnover among local Fleet staff.

"We feel we are a very trusting bank," Gilroy says, and these are "mutually beneficial relationships." Mid-market customers, he notes, are not likely to change banks for a few basis points on a loan. If such customers change banks, he says, it is "usually because a bank screws up."

In addition, Gilroy says, Fleet has banking relationships with "the majority of public companies" in Central New York." He notes, as well, that with recent acquisitions, Fleet can offer many services that local competitors might be hard pressed to match, including the ability to take a company public.

With 53 branches and 2,700 employees in Central New York, Fleet is active in local nonprofit organizations and projects. Gilroy will oversee some $400,000 that the bank contributes in the region. In addition, the bank has supported the transformation of Clinton Square, which sits across the street from its local headquarters. Fleet's "a good corporate citizen," he says, "a company you're proud to be a part of."