BBJ: Analysts speculate Brookline CFO asked to leave, leading up to possible acquisition

BOSTON – Brookline Bancorp Inc. – the parent company of Bank Rhode Island – announced Friday that Julie A. Gerschick, the bank’s chief financial officer and treasurer, will resign effective Dec. 31.

According to the Boston Business Journal, Gerschick will receive a $115,000 bonus for the year and a significant $615,000 severance package, leading some analysts to speculate that she was asked to leave. Her involuntary departure might signal that Brookline Bancorp is preparing for a possible acquisition, said analysts Mark Fitzgibbon and Matthew Forgotson of Sandler O’Neill.

Fitzgibbon and Forgotson identified People’s United Bank, headquartered in Bridgeport, Conn., as a likely acquirer, if Brookline is in fact seeking a sale.

Neither Gerschick nor Brookline Bancorp President and CEO Paul A. Perrault were available to provide a comment to the Boston Business Journal on Monday. The news release announcing Gerschick’s resignation stated she is leaving the company “to pursue other business interests.”

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“Julie, with her finance and consulting background, made significant contributions to the further development of the company’s finance area following our recent acquisitions,” said Perrault in a statement. “We are extremely appreciative of her efforts and wish her the best.”

Gerschick, a Harvard University graduate, has served as Brookline’s CFO since 2011, during Brookline’s acquisition of Bancorp Rhode Island Inc. Before joining Brookline, she was president of The Andover Group Inc., a specialized consulting firm that provides advisory services to large and mid-sized financial institutions, the Federal Home Loan Bank, and other companies.

She also worked as an audit and consulting partner at KPMG in Washington, D.C., as senior vice president for Great Lakes Bancorp, and as a fellow at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington, D.C.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Paul and the company’s management team, and assist with the company’s transition to a multi-bank holding company,” said Gerschick. “At the same time, I look forward to my next opportunity and challenge.”

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