PNB changing leadership
Published: November 18, 2009
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ALAN DAKEY
RICHARD LOCHEN
Richard Lochen has stepped down as president and CEO of People’s National Bank and will be replaced by a central Pennsylvania banker who has roots in Wayne County.
William Aubrey, chairman of the board of Peoples announced that Alan Dakey, who for 14 years served as president and CEO of MidPenn Bank in Millersburg, would be leading PNB into the future.
Dakey, 57, said Monday that his first official day on the job at PNB’s Hallstead headquarters will be Nov. 30, and he is excited about community banking and looking forward to returning to Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Prior to joining MidPenn Bank in 1994 as executive vice president and chief operating officer, Dakey had served The Dime Bank in Honesdale for 20 years, starting out as a management trainee, but the last seven years there as senior vice president.
Dakey said MidPenn and Peoples are comparable, and he believes both have been wildly successful because of their stress on being community minded.
While president and CEO, MidPenn Bank’s assets grew from $166 million to $552 million through growth, branch expansion and acquisitions, and it has 15 offices.
Peoples National has 11 community offices and $472 million in assets as of Sept. 30, 2009.
“I am excited about the opportunity to lead a successful bank that has a history of financial stability, quality customer service and a huge focus on serving its communities in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Dakey said.
The graduate of Waymart (now Western Wayne) High School, who has a bachelor’s in accounting from Bloomsburg and MBA from the University of Scranton, said “The focus on community is really what attracted me to the position.”
While the economy may be slumping and other banks feeling a pinch, Dakey said Peoples did not get into subprime lending and other risky activities that other banks did, and “that’s a huge plus.”
“I’m optimistic about opportunities for continued growth because the large corporate banks are distracted by the financial challenges they are facing,” Dakey said. “Meanwhile Peoples can keep a focus on doing the things that community banks have always been known for and that’s growing and serving our communities.”
He acknowledged that many people in the region have a good savings ethic, and gas leasing monies brought on by the Marcellus shale “gives us an unprecedented opportunity to further help our customers with their investments.”
Dakey added that it is no mistake that Peoples has the largest market share of deposited funds in both Susquehanna and Wyoming counties.
He said, “that position of strength is largely a result of a reputation for supporting the communities we serve by helping local nonprofits with donations, staffing and committing volunteer time to the things that really matter to our customers.”
As a man deeply invested in chambers of commerce, YMCAs and revitalization projects in communities where he also banked, he said he would continue to accentuate community “every step of the way.”
It is a role that his predecessor Lochen also very definitely took.
At the November 6 annual awards dinner of the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce, Lochen received the directors’ award for untold involvements over the past year.
In receiving the award, he noted that it was not done for the recognition but because “we care about our communities and neighbors.”
Lochen said Monday that he intends to stay on as chief administrative officer at Peoples through January 31 and will continue on the bank’s board of directors after that, but he is looking forward to returning to his public accounting firm, Lochen and Chase, a firm he founded in 1999.
It has offices in Tunkhannock and Nicholson, where Lochen also resides.
Of the accomplishments he is most proud, Lochen said was the reconstruction of six branch bank locations following the flooding of June 2006, the opening of a new branch bank in Glenburn, and helping to restore Shadowbrook Inn & Resort to a point of financial viability which he anticipates will lead to an attractive buyer in the not too distant future.
He said he was also excited to be in charge when his bank took market leadership in Wyoming County as the largest recipient of FDIC-insured deposits, a position it had already held in Susquehanna County.
He said there are parts of the banking business he would miss, but he had no doubts that it would be in good hands with his successor.
Dakey is married. His wife’s name is Diana and they have two grown children, Eric and Janet.
Peoples’ community office locations are Hallstead, Hop Bottom, Susquehanna and Montrose in Susquehanna County; Nicholson, Tunkhannock and Meshoppen in Wyoming County; Glenburn in Lackawanna County; and Conklin, Deposit and Binghamton in Broome County, N.Y.
