First Niagara Financial Group Inc. has promoted Avi Patel to chief marketing officer of the multi-state New York bank with Connecticut branches.
Patel will remain based in Buffalo and will continue to head First Niagara’s retail product development and management group, which he has led as its director since joining the bank in January 2011 as a senior vice president.
Prior to joining First Niagara, he served as a vice president at Wilmington Trust Co., where he was responsible for sales and marketing strategy, product development and management, and consumer and business banking channel development. Earlier in his career, he was at Citibank and FirstUSA Bank, with responsibility for marketing analytics on the banks’ industry leading credit card portfolios.
