United Bank hired John J. Smith as executive vice president and chief information and administrative officer. In this executive role, Smith will lead the Information Technology (IT), Payment Operations and Project Management teams at United Bank.

Smith comes to United with more than 30 years of experience in financial services technology and operations management. Smith spent the last 10 years with CIT, most recently holding the position of chief information officer for CIT Bank Unit from 2010 to 2015 and chief information officer of Consumer & Small Business Banking from 2005 to 2010. Prior to CIT, Smith was the chief information officer for operations and technology services at NYCE Corporation and held similar IT roles earlier in his career at Summit Bank and UJB/Financial.

In these positions, Smith gained valuable experience in managing all aspects of information technology and operation units including back-office operations, application development, data center management/operations, network management and call centers. In addition, Smith brings significant experience in merger and acquisition integration including developing required strategy, planning and roadmaps.

“Technology plays a role in every area of a bank so hiring an IT and operations leader of John’s caliber is a strategic imperative that will put us in an even stronger position to grow the bank, serve our customers and win new business while running our front-office and back-office operations more efficiently and at a lower cost,” said William H.W. Crawford, IV, CEO of United Bank and United Financial Bancorp. “We were fortunate to have the opportunity to choose from a strong pool of candidates for this position and I’m confident we hired the best in John Smith who is the right fit for our bank and values the same vision of excellence we champion at United.”