People's United Financial Appoints John P. Barnes as President and CEO

People's United Financial, Inc. PBCT, a diversified financial services company, today announced that it has named John P. (Jack) Barnes as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors effective immediately. Barnes was also named President, CEO and a director of the Company's subsidiary, People's United Bank. Barnes, 54, has served as interim President and CEO since the departure of former CEO Philip R. Sherringham in April. The company's announcement follows an extensive executive search involving internal and external candidates, which the Board of Directors conducted in partnership with Russell Reynolds, a leading executive search firm with substantial financial services sector expertise. "We are pleased to announce that, after a very thorough search process involving numerous external candidates, the Board unanimously determined that Jack is the right leader for the company in its next phase of growth," said Chairman of the Board George P. Carter. "He has a broad banking background and extensive experience with bank acquisitions and integration – both as a leader at People's United and at Chittenden Corporation. He also brings to the role a unique and essential understanding of the commitment of People's United to its customers, employees and communities throughout the franchise. "In the three months that Jack has led People's United as interim President and CEO, he has clearly demonstrated his strong leadership skills and the ability to execute on our strategy of delivering growth and increasing shareholder value," Carter added. "Along with our solid second quarter earnings results, we also announced last week two strategic acquisitions that extend our footprint as the largest bank headquartered in New England even further into the New York metro and Boston area markets," Carter continued. "During the past six months Jack also has overseen the very successful conversion of our core banking systems and the process of rebranding all of our northern New England divisions to the People's United Bank name."