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Flagstar Bank has named Steven Litchfield senior vice president and market manager of Connecticut Commercial Banking, a unit of Flagstar’s recently launched New England Commercial Banking division. Previously, Litchfield was senior vice president of business banking at Sovereign Bank, now Santander. As part of his new responsibilities, he is establishing a commercial lending office for Flagstar in the Connecticut market to provide loan, deposit, and treasury management products and services to middle market companies. Additionally, he is hiring a team of relationship managers, credit professionals, and loan administrators to support the commercial customer base. He has held a variety of credit, sales, and supervisory positions at Fleet Bank, BankBoston, and Shawmut Bank. With $12.7 billion in total assets, Flagstar is the largest publicly held savings bank headquartered in the Midwest. It has four commercial banking offices in southern New England.
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Christan Miller has been named director of marketing and communications at Hoffman Auto Group. He will oversee the company’s marketing and public relations departments, as well as the Internet business development center. He has been a Hoffman employee for seven months, most recently as the general sales manager at Hoffman Honda. He also has worked in the sales and marketing departments of American Honda, both as zone sales manager and regional marketing manager.
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Patricia Speicher Werbner has joined Wheeler Clinic as vice president of human resources. Since 2002, she has served as director of human resources for the Metropolitan District Commission. Prior to that, she was director of human resources for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Town of Wethersfield. Wheeler Clinic is an independent, not-for-profit, community-based organization that provides mental health and other programs to more than 30,000 children, adolescents and adults in Connecticut.
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Mike Dressander will assume an expanded role as president of both BHC Marketing Inc. and Dressander and Associates, a pair of independent marketing organizations serving Futurity First Insurance Group. He is a 29-year veteran of the insurance industry. He has served on the advisory boards of major annuity companies, has trained thousands of agents on fixed annuities, and has created cutting edge prospecting and sales programs. Also, Shelby Smith, president and chief operating officer of BHC Marketing since 2005, will take on a broader role as executive vice president and head of strategy and business development for Futurity First’s marketing organizations. Additionally, Kevin Meyer, director of marketing of BHC, will become BHC’s chief operating officer. Futurity First Insurance Group is an independent, nationwide insurance distribution organization based in Rocky Hill.
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Karen Tomasko has joined The Friends of Elizabeth Park as executive director. Tomasko most recently was director of major gifts at the Connecticut Science Center. Prior to that as a member of the UConn Foundation, she raised funds for the Neag Cancer Center at the Health Center in Farmington. The Friends of Elizabeth Park supports the City of Hartford in its efforts to maintain historic Rose Garden and the other significant gardens in Elizabeth Park.
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Lee A. Galuska has rejoined St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center as director of the Center for Nursing Education and Practice Innovation. In her new position, Galuska will be responsible for nursing education, academic affiliations, shared governance, and oversight of magnet designation activities. Galuska served as director of women’s and children’s services at St. Francis from 2007 until June 2011. She has previously held nursing leadership positions at MidState Medical Center and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. She is the immediate past president of the Connecticut Association of Nurse Executives. Also, Christine B. Vigneault, a nephrologist, and Mehran Motamed, a child psychiatrist, have joined the St. Francis medical staff. Dr. Vigneault received her medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk. Va. She served as an intern, resident, and chief resident in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center and as a fellow in nephrology at Yale-New Haven Hospital. At St. she is practicing as a member of Greater Hartford Nephrology, L.L.C. Dr. Motamed received his medical degree from the Tehran University School of Medicine, Tehran, Iran. He served as a resident in general psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Elmhurst, N.Y., and a fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University/Saint Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York. Dr. Motamed most recently served as an attending psychiatrist at the Queens Children Psychiatric Center, Queens, N.Y. At St. Francis, he is practicing as a member of the Saint Francis Behavioral Health Group.
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Cassie Voegeli has joined Del Conte Hyde Annello & Schuch, P.C., as a senior associate. She moves to the Farmington certified public accounting firm from Blum Shapiro’s West Hartford office where she was a senior accountant in the audit department.Â
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Paul R. Garcia has joined Kelley Drye & Warren LLP as a partner in the intellectual property practice group, working in the Chicago office. He will also practice from the firm’s Stamford office once his application to that state’s bar is approved. He moves from the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was a partner for the past decade. Mr. Garcia is a former assistant U.S. Attorney with substantial experience as lead counsel in trials and appeals in both jury and bench trials.
