Aug25Tue
We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Patrick J. Ward to our Board of Directors.
Patrick Ward joined WSFS Bank in August 2016 as Executive Vice President, Pennsylvania Market President. Mr. Ward served on the Board of Directors of WSFS Financial Corporation until April 23, 2020. Previously, he was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Penn Liberty Bank from 2004 to 2016.
He served as Executive Vice President of Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania from January 2003 until January 2004, he oversaw specialized industries, including the Government Banking, Professionals Banking and Not-For-Profit Businesses in the Mid-Atlantic region. Additionally, he was Chairman and President of Citizens Bank in Delaware and a member of the Citizens Financial Group Executive Policy Committee.
Prior to Citizens Bank, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer for Commonwealth Bank until its acquisition by Citizens Bank in January 2003. Under his leadership, Commonwealth Bank grew to $1.8 billion in assets including 61 branches throughout eastern Pennsylvania.
Preceding his time with Commonwealth Bank, Mr. Ward held a variety of positions at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, including Vice President and Controller of Mellon Bank’s Wholesale Banking Group and Vice President and Controller of its Retail Banking Group.
Mr. Ward is active in the community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Police Athletic League as Vice Chairman, the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry, the Foundation for Catholic Education for Southeast PA, the Brian C. Zwaan Legacy Fund, the Philadelphia Police Foundation, and the Chester County Food Bank. He is on the Board of Trustees for Cabrini College and the St. Patrick’s Church Finance Committee.
He is also currently an Operating Advisor for Falcon Capital Partners, a local investment bank providing sell side and strategic advisory services to middle market companies.
Mr. Ward is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and earned an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. He resides in Chester County.
By Paul J. Gough Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
Pennsylvania next month will roll out a new app that will notify residents if they are close contacts of someone with a confirmed case of Covid-19.
Covid Alert Pa is being developed for the Pennsylvania Department of Health with the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Irish app maker called NearForm that built a Covid-19 tracker for the Irish government.
“This app uses Bluetooth technology to let a person know that they have been exposed to Covid-19 without compromising their identity or location,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Levine made the announcement during a news conference Tuesday.
One of the persistent challenges in stemming the outbreak has been notifying people who have come within six feet of an infected person for a minimum of 15 minutes. It’s sometimes hard, for example, for people who are facing a Covid-19 diagnosis to tell a case investigator all the places they’ve been and for how long. And, said Levine, if an infected person had been in a store or a restaurant or somewhere else, it’s likely they didn’t know the names and contact numbers of everyone they were in contact with.
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Aug13Thu
Last year, two million visitors from North America visited the Emerald Isle.
That stunning figure – fully one-in-ten of all Americans who travelled to Europe on vacation made Ireland their destination — was the fruits of two decades of hard work by Tourism Ireland, the cross-border agency set up as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Fast forward to the summer of 2020, however, and, courtesy of our new lodger Covid-19, the total number of American holiday-makers in Ireland would hardly fill a Paddywagon tour bus.
For while there is no complete ban on travellers from the US travelling to Ireland — though that option is being mulled over in government corridors in Dublin — the necessity to quarantine for 14 days on arrival means only the bravest, long-stay vacationers are boarding the EI 104 from JFK to Dublin.
By Ambassador Daniel Mulhall
29 March 2019
“The European Union is the best example in the history of the world of conflict resolution” – John Hume in the European Parliament, 4th of May 2004
Throughout last year, I was involved in a number of events marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. That anniversary represented an important opportunity to remind people of what was achieved in 1998 and of its legacy in the form of two decades of peace in Northern Ireland as well as greatly improved relations on the island of Ireland, and between Ireland and Britain.
One political leader from that time who, I believe, deserves special credit is John Hume, who was a deserved recipient, alongside David Trimble, of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize. I have been involved in a number of discussions following the screening of Maurice Fitzpatrick’s documentary film, John Hume in America, most recently in Hartford, Connecticut, at the invitation of Congressman John Larson and last year in Springfield with Congressman Richie Neal, who chairs the Congressional Friends of Ireland. I have also reviewed the book that accompanied the film for the Irish Times.
