Investors Bancorp Adds Veteran N.Y. Banker to Board

Investors Bancorp (ISBC) in Short Hills, N.J., has added to its board a longtime New York banker with deep roots in Brooklyn.

Brendan Dugan has joined the board of the $13.3 billion-asset company, bringing it to 11 members, Investors said. He is president of St. Francis College, a private institution in downtown Brooklyn. Before becoming the college's president in 2008, he was chairman and chief executive of Sovereign Bank's operations in the New York and New Jersey area.

Dugan "brings to our board an impressive set of skills, wisdom and foresight which he developed over a lifetime as a leader of several large banking companies and an institute of higher learning," Investors CEO Kevin Cummings said in a news release.

Before joining Sovereign, Dugan was chief operating officer of Citibank Commercial markets. He was president of European American Bank, based on Long Island, from 1999 through its acquisition by Citigroup (NYSE: C) in 2001.

In addition to his work as a banker, Dugan has received an important honor for his work in the Roman Catholic Church: In 2009, he was inducted into the Pontifical Order of the Knights of St. Gregory the Great, one of five Orders of Knighthood of the Holy See, by Pope Benedict. He also serves on the finance council of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.

He lives in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, the same neighborhood where he grew up, and is extensively involved in the borough's community and cultural affairs, serving on the boards of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. He has been honored for his community service by groups including the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'rith, Helen Keller Services for the Blind, the Crohns and Colitis Foundation and the American Jewish Congress.

In addition to being president of St. Francis College, Dugan was also a member of the college's class of 1968.