Mr. Whitwell has 40 years of banking experience in executive and leadership roles. Prior to joining Patriot, Mr. Whitwell served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at Sterling Bancorp. In the approximate decade Mr. Whitwell was at Sterling, he was responsible for articulating Sterling’s strategy and overseeing the transformation of the company from a small community bank into a top tier regional bank. The transformation entailed re-building and modernizing virtually all areas of the bank, including building an entirely new culture, completely replacing the technology stack, creating an efficient operating model, upgrading talent and completing multiple M&A transactions. In his role at Sterling, Mr. Whitwell oversaw multiple functional units within the company. Prior to joining Sterling, Mr. Whitwell served as a Principal at Mercatus Consulting, served as CEO of Union Federal Savings Bank and held senior leadership positions at Key Bank, Unisys Corporation and Huntington Bank.