Tompkins Financial Corporation promoted Charles Guarino to chief banking operations officer, a newly created position for the organization. Over the past five years with Tompkins, Guarino has led mortgage sales and operations and small business lending, including the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lending initiative, which generated more than 3,000 loans.

Prior to joining Tompkins, Guarino spent more than two decades in banking and financial management, overseeing all aspects of consumer, home equity, residential and small business lending, as well as analyzing risk in retail loan portfolios and recommending policy, procedure and guideline adjustments.

Guarino comes to this position as a final step in realigning the responsibilities of Francis Fetsko, CFO and chief operations officer of Tompkins Financial, who will be retiring at the end of 2024. In his new role, Guarino will be responsible for overseeing Tompkins Financial’s technology and banking operations throughout the four markets it serves. He will report to Steve Romaine, president and CEO of Tompkins Financial.

“Chuck has led the retail and small business lending team at Tompkins Financial exceptionally well over the past five years and is ready for this expanded role,” Romaine said. “His strategic vision and ability to align resources and effectively execute are critical to his new role. I have had the pleasure of engaging with him on the Central New York leadership team and have watched him execute strategic plans to help our clients succeed. It is rewarding to know the Tompkins organization empowers our team and allows us to fill this position from within our current ranks. I look forward to Chuck’s contribution and collaboration as he joins our senior leadership team.”