Northwest Savings Bank President to Speak at Pitt-Brad Executive Series

BRADFORD – William J. Wagner, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Northwest Savings Bank, will speak as part of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s Executive Speaker Series Monday, Jan. 10.

Wagner will speak from 11 a.m. to noon in the Mukaiyama University Room of the Frame-Westerberg Commons. The event is free and open to the public. A time for coffee and networking will be held at 10:30 a.m. No reservations are necessary.

Last year, Northwest was ranked highest in customer satisfaction with retail banking in the Mid-Atlantic Region, according to J.D. Power and Associates. In 2009, the company was named one of the 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America by Forbes.com.

Northwest is a Pennsylvania-chartered savings bank headquartered in Warren and currently holds assets of more than $8 billion and operates 170 community banking offices in Pennsylvania, northeastern Ohio, western New York, northern Maryland, and southern Florida. Its parent company, Northwest Bancshares, Inc. is a publicly traded holding company, which trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol NWBI.

Founded in 1896 in Bradford, Northwest has, during its 114-year history, established itself as a full-service provider of financial products and services and serves its communities with a competitive array of banking and investment products.

The bank offers mortgage and consumer loans, as well as a full menu of retail deposit products (checking accounts, savings accounts, insured money fund accounts, retirement accounts and certificates of deposit). Northwest also provides commercial loans and business banking products, as well as trust, investment management and brokerage services.

A St. Marys native, Wagner got his start in finance with KPMG in Pittsburgh, where he was an assistant, staff and senior accountant concentrating on auditing financial institutions before he became the business manager for the St. Marys Area School District.

In 1980, he joined Fidelity Savings Association in Pittsburgh as its vice president of finance and chief financial officer. In 1985, he moved to Northwest Bancshares Inc. and Northwest Savings Bank in Warren, where he was chief financial officer and chief operating officer before being appointed president and chief executive officer in 1998. In 2003, he was made chairman also.

In addition to his duties with the bank, Wagner is an active civic leader, serving as a past council president of the Chief Cornplanter Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He’s also a member of the board of directors of the Warren Chamber of Business and Industry, a member and past president of several chapters of Rotary International, and a past board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers.

He is also a member of the Advisory Board at Pitt-Bradford.

Wagner and his wife, Amy, have been married for 29 years and have two children. He enjoys hunting, fly fishing, golf and reading.

The Executive Speaker Series is sponsored by the Pitt-Bradford entrepreneurship and business management programs.