McDonnell named chair of HarVest board

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006

John J. '‘Jack'' McDonnell, co-founder of consulting company Bethesda Bioscience Partners LLC, was named on Monday chairman of the board of directors of HarVest Bank of Maryland. He replaces John W. Holaday, the bank’s chairman since its 2004 start who wants to pursue some other interests but will still be a board member.

‘‘This is a natural transition within our family,” said John P. ‘‘Jack” Hollerbach, president and CEO of HarVest, which is headquartered in Rockville.

McDonnell has also been on the board since HarVest’s beginning. ‘‘He is an extremely valuable board member who will step in ably,” Hollerbach said.

McDonnell’s background includes 13 years as a director at Sequoia Bank, a former Bethesda institution that was acquired by United Bank in 2003. ‘‘We saw some great growth at Sequoia, and I think we have the team to do that here at HarVest,” said McDonnell, who has helped establish other companies besides Bethesda Bioscience and is general counsel of Cibernet Corp., a Bethesda provider of financial services for wireless carriers.

Assets at HarVest have about doubled in the past seven months to $80 million, Hollerbach said. The bank opened a branch in Germantown last year and plans to open another in Bethesda by the end of this year, he said.