WESTFIELD CENTER — Westfield Bank announced this week the promotion of chief lending officer Timothy Phillips to president, the bank’s second.

The 43-year-old Sharon Township resident replaces Jon Park, who became the bank’s first president in 2001. Park will continue as chairman of the bank’s board of directors and will assume additional responsibilities leading Westfield Group affiliates.

Phillips

“I’m excited about this opportunity, about where we came from and the next 10 years to come,” Phillips said.

Phillips has been with Westfield Bank as chief lending officer since 2003.

He came to Westfield from Old Phoenix National Bank, where he started working in 1989 after graduating from Miami University with a degree in finance.

He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Akron.

He began working as a management trainee for Old Phoenix, and his experience ranged from teller to branch manager, vice president/commercial lender and then Medina-area regional president.

“I think banks should do more of that these days. It made you well-rounded and took you through different areas of the bank,” Phillips said.

He said the small, private bank has had success where larger banks have been hurt in a tough economy, and 2010 was a good year for Westfield.

“We’re growing in size in both assets and people,” he said. “Where a lot of banks have been cutting staff and costs, we grew our team by more than 21 percent this year and our assets rose 11 percent in 2010.”

He said part of that success is because the bank is private and does not have to make short-term decisions based on quarterly results driven by shareholders.

Phillips added Westfield Bank also did not get involved in any “radical-type products” like sub-prime lending.

“Customers look at our bank as an alternative,” he said. “People want to be treated fairly.”

Moving forward, he said, he wants Westfield to continue using technology that brings banking to the customer, rather than creating numerous branches, a pitfall for larger banks.

He said 73 percent of Westfield Bank’s deposits are processed in customers’ offices, rather than at a bank branch.

“I think the model we have is the more efficient model,” he said. “Over the next 10 years new products will be developed, so it is our challenge to keep current and relevant and take that information to our customers.”

Westfield Bank, which is affiliated with Westfield Insurance, will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Feb. 1.

Phillips said he would like to continue the steady growth of the bank during his time as president.

“We expanded into Summit County, Wayne County, Stark County and, of course, Medina County, where we started, so we will continue working on expanding in adjacent counties,” he said.

Contact Lisa Hlavinka at (330) 721-4048 or lhlavinka@medina-gazette.com.

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