The MetroHartford Alliance board of directors will have a new chair come April 1 when Joe Savage, executive vice chairman of Webster Financial Corp. and Webster Bank, takes over the top spot.
Savage replaces Bonnie Malley, executive vice president and CFO of The Phoenix Cos. Inc., effective April 1. In January, Malley was nominated by Mayor Luke Bronin to serve as Hartford’s chief operating officer, subject to City Council approval.
In Sept. 2015, the Hartford Business Journal presented Savage with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his professional accomplishments.
Savage has been a longstanding member of the Alliance board and involved in a number of its public policy and other initiatives. In addition to his involvement with the Alliance, Savage is a director of the Travelers Championship committee, serves on the boards of The Bushnell and the Connecticut Bankers Association, and chaired the 2013-14 United Way Campaign for United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. He is a director emeritus of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association.
He has been with Webster since 2002, when he joined the bank as executive vice president, commercial banking. Savage was promoted to president of Webster Bank and elected to the bank’s board of directors in 2014; he assumed his current title and duties in Oct. 2015.
Malley has chaired the Alliance board since Jan. 1, 2015; she is the first woman to hold the position.She intends to leave Phoenix once the company’s merger with Nassau Reinsurance Group Holdings is complete.
