Piscataqua Savings Bank has announced that President and CEO Joan Gile will retire effective March 31, 2025, concluding 38 years with the bank.
“It has been an amazing career, and I will be forever grateful for the privilege of serving with and leading our remarkable team of dedicated and talented professionals,” Gile said in a statement.
She’ll be replaced by Executive Vice President Benjamin S. Wheeler as the 14th president in the bank’s long history. Wheeler is a former vice president and business development officer at the bank. Gile will continue as a bank trustee after her retirement.
“Ben Wheeler is a seasoned professional banker who has served in numerous positions at several local banks for nearly two decades,” Gile said.
A 1982 graduate of Skidmore College, Gile joined Piscataqua Savings Bank in 1986 as an operations supervisor. She after a stint as an executive vice president, she succeeded Rick Wallis as president and CEO in 2021.
In its announcement, the bank credited Gile with steering Piscataqua Savings through a period of rising interest rates and turbulence in the real estate market. The bank closed 2023 with a loan portfolio totaling more than $200 million, just the second time the company reached that benchmark, the bank said, and attained $2 million in annual revenue for the fifth year running.
Gile also led the bank to become recertified as a B Corporation, a stringent and difficult process that certifies companies as operating with so-called “triple bottom lines” with a focus on helping their communities as well as earning money. It’s the second bank in New Hampshire, after Mascoma Savings Bank, to achieve this status.
Wheeler, a sixth-generation Seacoast resident who lives in Rye, holds leadership positions in a wide number of local nonprofits and is a lifelong Piscataqua Savings Bank customer.
“Ben can trace his family’s relationship with Piscataqua Savings Bank back to December 14, 1886, when his great grandfather, Chester J. Wheeler, made his first deposit,” Gile said. “Since our first depositor, Charolette Haven, walked through our doors in 1877, Piscataqua Savings Bank has played a vital role in helping shape what the Seacoast area has become. It is an honor and responsibility to carry forward the tradition of being an independent community bank with a customer centric focus.”
