Peapack Private Bank & Trust Hires Zachary Bermudez as Senior Managing Director

Peapack Private Bank & Trust has made its second new hire of a former A&E Real Estate Finance (AEREF) employee this month.

The New Jersey-based bank has hired Zachary Bermudez as its new senior managing director in its commercial real estate division, according to a Wednesday announcement from Peapack. Bermudez started in his new role last month.

Bermudez, who previously worked as managing director at AEREF, will be responsible for “day-to-day management of [Peapack’s] credit and reporting functions, along with client interactions,” the announcement said.

Bermudez is the second former AEREF official to jump ship to Peapack this month, following the bank’s hire of Joseph Fingerman as its new president of commercial real estate lending earlier this week, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

A spokesperson for Peapack did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bermudez began his career at North Fork Bank in 2003, then he joined the now-defunct Signature Bank as group director and senior vice president in 2007, according to the announcement.

At Signature, Bermudez assisted in maintaining a more than $33 billion commercial real estate loan portfolio, Peapack said.

But after Signature was closed by the New York State Department of Financial Services in March 2023 due in part to its heavy exposure to cryptocurrency, Bermudez left to begin a short stint as managing director of AEREF.

Peapack, which is owned by New Jersey holding company Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation, currently has $7 billion of assets under management.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.