Berkshire Bank Wealth Management Announces Karen Heston, CFP®, Hired as Vice President, Portfolio Ma

BOSTON, MA – September 30, 2021 – 

Berkshire Bank, a socially responsible community-dedicated bank with locations primarily in New England and New York, announced the Bank has hired Karen Heston, CFP® as Vice President, Portfolio Manager. Ms. Heston has over 25 years of experience in investment management and providing financial advisement and guidance to clients. 

"We are pleased to welcome Karen to our team,” said Kathryn Hersey, SVP, Director of Wealth Management and Chief Investment Officer. “Karen has extensive experience as an investment specialist and financial advisor. As a Portfolio Manager and Advisor at Berkshire Bank, she will bring her deep expertise in macroeconomics and asset management to help individual and institutional clients meet their financial goals with Berkshire, and she will serve on our Investment Committee and Financial Planning team." 

Ms. Heston will co-manage fixed income investments and will develop programming and solutions that focus on empowering women to thrive in their investments, careers, and life. 

Prior to joining Berkshire Bank, Karen served as a Senior Financial Advisor for Martha’s Vineyard Investment Advisors, LLC. In that role she advised individual clients and non-profit organizations with respect to investment policy and asset allocation, portfolio risk management, and retirement planning strategies. As a Managing Partner of Sage Capital Management, LLC, Karen worked for over two decades as the key portfolio manager in Sage’s market-neutral convertible bond strategy. She began her career as an interest rate risk management specialist working on the top trading desks of several NYC money center banking institutions. 

Ms. Heston is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont and received her MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business. She is also a CFP® professional and works with advisory clients in a fiduciary capacity. 

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About Berkshire Bank 

Berkshire Bank is transforming what it means to bank its neighbors socially, humanly, and digitally to empower the financial potential of people, families, and businesses in its communities as it pursues its vision of being the leading socially responsible omni-channel community bank in the markets it serves.  

Berkshire Bank provides business and consumer banking, mortgage, wealth management, investment, and insurance services. The Bank has approximately $11.7 billion in assets and operates 107 branch offices primarily in New England and New York, with an agreement to sell its eight Mid-Atlantic branches. Headquartered in Boston, Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB) is the parent of Berkshire Bank and is a member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. To learn more, call 800-773-5601 or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn