William H.W. Crawford, IV, Chief Executive Officer of United Financial Bancorp, Inc. and United Bank of Glastonbury, Conn., announced that they have recruited and built a team of top bankers from the Worcester area who have the expertise and reputation to make this region a successful and profitable commercial growth market for United Bank.

In addition to the robust team United has in place in Worcester, the bank added three first-class bankers from Santander, N.A. to join the Worcester Commercial Banking Team and leverage their strong commercial presence to expand the Bank's market share in that area.

Coming from Santander to United are Tom McGregor, Senior Vice President and Regional Commercial Banking Executive, Mark E. McGwin III, Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Officer and Todd Mandella, Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Officer.

McGregor will report directly to David C. Paulson, Executive Vice President and Head of Wholesale Banking.

The following commercial bankers joined the United Team this week:

• Tom McGregor, Senior Vice President and Regional Commercial Banking Executive, brings to United 20 years of commercial banking experience, focusing on commercial and asset-based lending. Most recently, Tom was Senior Vice President and Regional Executive for Santander Bank, N.A. Prior to Santander, McGregor spent over a decade in key leadership roles with Bank of America Merrill Lynch for their Global Commercial Banking division, including Senior Vice President and Senior Client Manager covering the Worcester market.
• Mark McGwin, Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Officer, comes to United with more than three decades of diverse experience in the banking industry. He is an experienced senior-level commercial lender with diversified lending, middle market and asset based experience. Before coming to United, McGwin was most recently Senior Vice President and Relationship Manager of Franchise Lending for Santander Bank, N.A., primarily responsible for managing its portfolio of credit exposure to Dunkin' Donuts franchises. Also at Santander (Sovereign at the time), he was Senior Vice President and Relationship Manager for Middle Market/Asset Based Lending from 2003 to 2011 and held another senior-level position in commercial banking for Century Bank in Massachusetts.
• Todd Mandella, Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Officer, most recently held the position of Vice President, Corporate Banking for Santander Bank, N.A. for the Greater Worcester and Boston area. Prior to Santander, Mandella was Vice President of Global Commercial Banking for Bank of America for over 11 years.

These three commercial bankers are joining a very strong, robust team of bankers who cover the Worcester commercial market for United. This team includes Samir Rauf, VP, C&I Credit Officer, Tim Grinham, Business Banking Officer and John Peculis, CRE Credit Officer as well as Jane Loranger, Vice President and Commercial Banking Officer, Lori Kostiw, Vice President-Cash Management and Jill Wardle, Vice President-Cash Management.

On April 30, 2014, United Bank (established in 1882) and Rockville Bank (established 1858) completed a transformational merger of equals by bringing together two financially strong, independent-minded institutions to create the premier community bank in New England with more than 50 branches in two states and over $5.0 billion in assets.  The new United Bank is a state chartered bank headquartered in Glastonbury Conn. with regional offices throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts.