MONTGOMERY
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Community Bank officially welcomed John Montgomery to the community.
“I’m humbled. The legacy and history of the bank are awesome,” the Philadelphia area native said Friday morning, when he was introduced as the new president and chief executive officer of the bank and its holding company, CB Financial Services Inc. He spoke during a brief news conference at Southpointe Golf Club, before live and remote audiences.
Montgomery, who has resided in eastern Pennsylvania most of his life, has 30-plus years of banking experience. He most recently was employed in Missouri for six years.
Now he will lead a publicly traded company with $1.4 billion in assets and 26 offices in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Montgomery also will be a director of the bank and CB Financial, which also is the holding company of Exchange Underwriters Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank.
Community Bank was launched July 1, 1901, in Carmichaels, where the bank and CB Financial are registered and where their main corporate offices are based. CB Financial also has a corporate location near Washington, Pa.
Montgomery will succeed Barron P. “Pat” McCune Jr. as president and CEO, effective Aug. 31. McCune had been interim president and CEO since early January, following Pat O’Brien’s voluntary resignation from those positions.
McCune will remain on board as an executive consultant to CB Financial and the bank through March 31, 2021, to help with the executive transition. He will become a director emeritus with the bank and continue as a director emeritus of CB Financial.
A Washington native, McCune has been a longtime executive with the company and bank. He resigned as CEO of both in June 2018, and became a full-time resident of Wyoming before returning 19 months later to assume the interim roles.
Montgomery was introduced by Mark Fox, chair of the board of directors for the bank and CB Financial. He said the company conducted a national search for candidates en route to selecting Montgomery.
“It was so important that we find an individual who fits the values and culture of Community Bank,” Fox said. “We want to continue to be an independent bank.”
The incoming president and CEO is pleased to be back in the commonwealth, which he says “has a lot of opportunities for banking. Pennsylvania is a wonderful market with tremendous opportunities,” and where “community banks are ideal.”
He expressed caution about operating within the pandemic, saying it “has had a real impact on us and our families” and that financial challenges could be ahead. “The storm has not yet hit our shore.”
But Community Bank has weathered many storms across 119 years: two global pandemics, two World Wars and the Great Recession a little more than a decade ago. Montgomery is upbeat.
“This is a wonderful organization,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with people here.”