Megabank player now leads community bank's private-client biz. Lee Wortham, former head of private banking at the Bank of New York, has been named head of wealth management at First Niagara Bank. The newly created position makes him a member of the Lockport, N.Y.-based community bank’s management committee and puts him in charge of its trust and brokerage units.

Wortham left the Bank of New York last spring “to pursue new opportunities,” according to a Bank of New York spokesman. John Dowd, the bank’s chief trust officer, replaced him in May.

Putting First Niagara’s trust and brokerage units under a wealth-management umbrella is meant to “complete the company’s customer-centric business model,” according to a press statement by First Niagara Financial Group (FNFG), the New York state-chartered bank’s corporate parent.

Mergers

“Our objective is to be the best service provider in our markets at assisting our customers in achieving their financial goals,” says FNFG’s CEO Paul Kolkmeyer. “This type of vision requires the support of seasoned professionals, like Lee, who have a proven record of success.” First Niagara has branches throughout Upstate New York.

As head of wealth management at the Bank of New York, Wortham was responsible for private-client strategy, product development, and management of the bank’s high-net-worth services.

Given FNFG’s acquisitiveness in recent years, however, Wortham’s prior experience with Chase Bank (now JPMorganChase) might prove more relevant. One of his principal occupations in a 14-year stint with the New York-based megabank was stitching together private-banking and asset-management groups lumped under the Chase banner as a result of mergers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Since early in 1999, FNFG has acquired six thrift banks, six insurance brokerages, three business-service firms, two leasing companies, an asset manager, and a health-plan administrator.

Wortham plans to move to western New York from his home in Montclair, N.J. –FWR

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