ESSA names new management team for Lehigh Valley region

Stroudsburg-based ESSA Bank & Trust has made some management changes to its Lehigh Valley Commercial Banking team.

Stephen Bowers has been named regional president for the Lehigh Valley. Prior to joining ESSA, he served as vice president of commercial real estate lending for Penn Community bank. He has had a career of more than 22 years in multiple facets of the financial services industry.

Bowers will lead commercial banking and the retail branches within the Lehigh Valley region for ESSA.

“Steve brings a wealth of experience and extensive knowledge of the Lehigh Valley market and we look forward to his contributions leading our commercial and retail efforts as part of our customer-focused regional structure,” said Peter Gray, executive vice president and chief banking officer for ESSA.

James Gorman, Sr. has been appointed senior commercial relationship manager for the Lehigh Valley Region.

Prior to joining ESSA, Gorman served as senior vice president of community banking at BB&T. He has more than 38 years of commercial banking experience in various roles and organizations.

Bowers has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Pennsylvania State University.

He has been an active volunteer for several community and civic organizations, including the Red Mill Museum Village Board of Trustees, Rotary International Clinton Chapter Treasurer, Levitt Pavilion Board of Directors, Artsquest Governance Committee, Equi-librium Board of Trustees and, most recently, the chair of the March of Dimes Commercial and Industrial Real Estate Awards.

Gorman has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from King’s College and a master’s degree in finance from Wilkes University.

He also serves as an adjunct professor of finance at the Pennsylvania State University Scranton.  Gorman is a board member at the NEPA Council for Boy Scouts of America, American Cancer Society Ball of Hope and volunteers at several charitable organizations.

ESSA Bank & Trust has total assets of $1.9 billion and has 22 community offices throughout the Greater Pocono, Lehigh Valley, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and suburban Philadelphia markets.