Executive Officers

Mr. Shara was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. and Lakeland Bank effective April 2, 2008. Prior to joining Lakeland Bank, Mr. Shara served as President and Chief Lending Officer of TD Banknorth’s (now TD Bank) Mid-Atlantic Division, which includes New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Prior to TD Banknorth acquiring Hudson United Bank, Mr. Shara was Executive Vice President and Senior Loan Officer of HUBCO, a $9 billion commercial bank, where he oversaw organic growth and was responsible for integrating over 30 acquisitions.

Mr. Shara serves on the Board of Trustees of the Boys and Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic, N.J., the Board of Directors of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey, and is Chairman of the New Jersey Bankers Association board. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the Ramapo College Foundation and is a Foundation Officer on the Board of Trustees of Chilton Medical Center Foundation. Mr. Shara earned a master’s degree in business administration as well as a Bachelor of Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Mr. Schwarz joined Lakeland Bank in 2009 as Chief Retail Officer and currently oversees Retail Banking, Commercial Lending and Marketing in his role as Chief Operations Officer.

Prior to joining Lakeland, Mr. Schwarz, with over 45 years of retail banking experience in Northern, New Jersey, was Executive Vice President and Market Executive of Retail Banking at Sovereign (now Santander) for their Northern New Jersey division. In this capacity, he was responsible for all aspects of management for a 79 branch network and over $4 billion in deposits. Prior to Sovereign, he was Senior Vice President and NJ Retail President for Independence Community Bank and also held positions with Broad National Bank, Urban National Bank, Midlantic National Bank and United Jersey Bank.

Mr. Schwarz is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Metro YMCA’s of the Oranges and a past member of the Board of Directors for Hudson County Community College Foundation.

Mr. Splaine serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and began his career at Lakeland Bank as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer in 2016.

Prior to joining Lakeland, Mr. Splaine was employed by Investors Bank from 2004 until 2015 in various positions including Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis and Investor Relations, and as Chief Financial Officer. His additional previous employment included Hewlett-Packard Financial Services, CIT and KPMG LLC.

Mr. Splaine earned both an undergraduate degree in accounting and a Master's in Business Administration from Rider University.

Paul Ho-Sing-Loy joined Lakeland Bank in 2017 as Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer based in Oak Ridge. Mr. Ho-Sing-Loy is responsible for further developing and leading the information technology strategy for the Bank.

Ho-Sing-Loy’s extensive industry experience spans more than 30 years and was most recently Senior Vice President, Business Solutions at Associated Bank, a regional bank with $29 billion in assets headquartered in Wisconsin. Prior to that, he served as divisional Chief Technology Officer for Bank of America in San Francisco and Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Cornell University.

Mr. Matteson joined Lakeland Bank in 2008 and currently serves as serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for both Lakeland Bancorp, Inc. and Lakeland Bank, and as a member of Lakeland's Executive Management Team.

Mr. Matteson is responsible for the supervision of the administrative and operational departments, including Information Technology, Business Application Support, Deposit Operations, Enterprise Solutions, Facilities, Human Resources, Legal, Loan Operations and Physical Security.

Mr. Matteson previously served as General Counsel at Hudson United Bancorp, Assistant General Counsel at IDB Bank, Senior Attorney at TD Banknorth (now TD Bank) and Counsel at Summit Bank.

Mr. Matteson earned his law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, and Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University. Mr. Matteson also is a graduate of the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking, in connection with which he completed the requirements to receive the Wharton Leadership Certificate from the Wharton School, Aresty Institute of Executive Education, at the University of Pennsylvania, and separately earned the certificate from the ABA Advanced Commercial Lending School. Mr. Matteson is admitted to practice law in New Jersey and New York.

Mr. Nigro joined Lakeland Bank in 2016 as Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Credit Risk Manager at The Provident Bank in Iselin, NJ.

His banking career began in 1994 at Summit Bank in Berkeley Heights where he held various credit and lending positions in Chatham, Cranford, Dayton, and Bridgewater. He advanced to Vice President, Regional Sales Manager, a position he held until 2001 when he left Summit Bank to pursue opportunities with the former Somerset Hills Bank in Bernardsville as Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer.

Mr. Nigro graduated magna cum laude from Seton Hall University with a bachelor’s degree in finance, and was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and the Financial Management Association. He was recently named Chairman of the Morris Habitat for Humanity where he has served as a Director and Treasurer since January 2013. He also serves as Secretary for the Morris County Housing Alliance, is a member of the Risk Management Association and serves on a committee for the New Jersey Bankers Association.

Mrs. Lalwani joined Lakeland Bank in August 2008 as Senior Vice President, Director, Retail Sales and has more than 20 years of retail banking experience. Before joining Lakeland Bank, Ellen was previously employed by TD Bank, Key Bank, Hudson United Bank, and began her banking career at Chase. Mrs. Lalwani earned a bachelor’s degree in finance with a minor in economics from St. John’s University and graduated with an M.B.A. from Strayer University with a Welch Scholar designation. Ellen graduated from the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking. She has earned an Aresty Scholar designation from The Wharton School of Business. She currently attends Capella University pursuing doctoral studies in leadership and management. Ellen is an Advisory Board Member to the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School of Business Leadership Program.

Ellen has been awarded the 2019 NJ Biz Best 50 Women in Business, the ROI Women Influencers award in 2021, and the NJ Bankers Association Inaugural Woman of Impact Award for 2022.

Mr. Rath serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer and joined Lakeland Bank in March 2015 as Senior Vice President and Group Manager, responsible for Middle Market and C&I lending, Asset Based Lending and Equipment Finance.  He has over 35 years of banking experience and was previously employed by TD Bank for over 16 years as Senior Vice President and Group Manager responsible for Middle Market, Commercial and Small Business lending activities in the Lower Hudson Valley prior to his departure. Prior to that, he was with The Bank of New York for 18 years where he held various positions.

He serves as a Board member and past Chairman for Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress and is on the boards of Hospice of Orange and Sullivan Counties and the Bardavon 1869 Opera House. He has been an Advisory Board member for the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley for 25 years and was Co-Chairman of their Capital Campaign.

Mr. Rath was a recipient of the 2014 Mount Saint Mary's College Joseph A. Bonura Leadership award and 2017 United Way of Dutchess/Orange Community Champion award. He graduated from Washingtonville Senior High School and attended Dutchess County Community College.

Mrs. Garrera joined Lakeland Bank in 2000 through the acquisition of Metropolitan State Bank as Vice President, Regional Administrator for the Southern Region and has more than 30 years of retail banking experience. In 2007, she was promoted to Senior Vice President, Regional Administrator of the Bank’s Southern Region and in 2016, she was promoted to First Senior Vice President and Senior Regional Administrator. She is currently a board member for the Chilton Medical Center Foundation.

Stephen Novak is an Executive Vice President, Senior Commercial Real Estate Officer and Group Leader for several of Lakeland Bank’s lending teams.  Mr. Novak joined Lakeland Bank in 2001 and has a banking career that spans 30 years, including his tenure with Independence Bank of New Jersey and Commerce Bank. 

In addition to his position with Lakeland Bank, Mr. Novak is active within the community including several board/trustee/membership positions with local not-for-profit organizations, charities and various trade organizations, including Commerce and Industry of New Jersey and NAIOP.  Mr. Novak serves as the trustee/treasurer for Allendale Housing Inc., which is a not-for-profit organization that is active in the development of housing for low to moderate income developmentally disabled individuals.

Mr. Novak received his Associates Degree in Business from Bergen Community College and both his Bachelors Degree in Finance/Economics and his MBA in Finance from Montclair State University.  Mr. Novak is also a graduate of The Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Wharton Leadership Program.

Mr. Andreacio serves as Executive Vice President, Group Leader, joining Lakeland Bank in January 2022 through the acquisition of 1st Constitution Bank where he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer and Chief Credit Officer. Prior to joining 1st Constitution in 2012, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Northern State Bank, a community bank located in Bergen County, N.J. Prior to that, he served as an Executive Vice President with National Penn Bank/KNBT and Senior Vice President of First Union Corporation (now Wells Fargo) in the Lending and Credit areas.

Mr. Andreacio earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Seton Hall University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Rutgers University. He is also a member of the Risk Management Association and the New Jersey Bankers Commercial Lending Committee.

Mr. Stackhouse joined Lakeland Bank in 2019 as First Senior Vice President, Senior Credit Officer and has more than 25 years of industry experience. Previously, he was a Commercial Real Estate Underwriting Manager at Provident Bank and prior to that, he was Senior Vice President Construction Lending, and Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer at Investors Bank. Stackhouse earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration at Villanova University and is a graduate of Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He is a board member and treasurer for Collier Youth Services Foundation and serves on the Kislak Real Estate Institute Executive Advisory Counsel at Monmouth University. His professional affiliations include memberships in Risk Management Associates, the Society of Chief Appraisers and the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors.

Mr. Yanagisawa joined Lakeland in November 2008 as Chief Lending Officer. Mr. Yanagisawa has over 45 years’ experience in commercial banking, including Senior Loan Officer for TD Bank in the Northern New Jersey market. Before TD Bank’s acquisition of Hudson United Bank in 2006, Mr. Yanagisawa had been with Hudson United Bank for nine years. Prior to Hudson United, he held various senior lending positions through successive mergers, with Bergen State Bank, Citizens First National Bank of NJ, NatWest Bank and Fleet National Bank.

He is a member of the Garden State Credit Associates, the 200 Club of Bergen County and Risk Management Associates and is a former board member of the Volunteer Center of Bergen County.

Mr. Yanagisawa holds MBA and Bachelor’s degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University and advanced banking degrees from The Stonier Graduate School of Banking and The Graduate Commercial Lending School.