Ion Bank today announced that Naugatuck Mayor Bob Mezzo will be joining the Bank in early December, shortly after the conclusion of his third term in office in November.
Mezzo will join the Bank as a Business Development Officer in its Commercial Lending Department, said Charles J. Boulier III, the Bank’s President and Chief Executive Officer. He is scheduled to begin his new job on Dec. 2.
“Any time you get an opportunity to add a talented, hard-working, well-qualified individual to your organization, you have to take full advantage of it, Boulier said. “We feel Bob’s familiarity with and profound knowledge of the community will be tremendous assets for our bank.”
Mezzo was elected to a third two year term as Naugatuck’s Mayor in May of 2013 and recently announced on his personal blog that he would not be seeking a fourth term.
“While I have been and always will be committed to making Naugatuck all that it can be, I have decided that it is time for me to begin the next chapter of my life, he wrote. “I will not be seeking a fourth term during our municipal elections this November.”
On his blog, Mezzo noted he had publicly indicated that his third term could well be his last prior to his most recent re-election.
Mezzo today described his decision to join Ion Bank as a positive move in both the professional and personal sense.
“Ion Bank is a cornerstone of commercial and civic life in the borough, he said. “The philanthropic commitment by the Bank and its employees to our community is exemplary and consistent with my personal philosophy. I can think of no other place I would like to begin the next phase of my professional life.”
Prior to becoming Naugatuck’s Mayor in 2009, Mezzo served on the borough’s Board of Mayor and Burgesses for four years and as Deputy Mayor from 2001 to 2003. He also operated his own general practice law firm for nine years, concentrating on residential real estate, wills and estates, and employment discrimination law.
Mezzo, who received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Connecticut in 1993 and Law Degree from UConn’s School of Law in 1997, also served as the Director of Government and Economic Affairs for the Greater Waterbury Chamber of Commerce for a two year period ending in late 2008.