Chuck Sulerzyski has been a part of the Marietta community and Peoples Bancorp for more than 10 years.

Now he is saying goodbye.

Sulerzyski officially retires today, ending a 13-year career with Peoples that started in April 2011 when he became president and CEO of Peoples Bancorp and its subsidiary Peoples Bank.

Sulerzyski came to Peoples in the wake of the Great Recession. He said from 2008 to 2011 there were a lot of bank failures and problem banks and during this time, “unfortunately Peoples Bank was struggling.”

He said Peoples’ board of directors was looking for someone to turn the company around and get it on its feet when they hired him.

“We were able to stabilize the company,” Sulerzyski said.

Sulerzyski said he grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and became interested in banking in college. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy from New York University and a master of business administration from Fordham University. He started working for Irving Trust his freshman year of college. They paid for his tuition but in order to do so he had to have a business-related major, so he chose economics.

He said he enjoyed both the economics and philosophy majors in college.

Sulerzyski said he has worked in banking for 49 years, 35 of which were in financial services and 25 of which were big jobs at big companies. During this time, he said he grew frustrated with companies not focusing on the employee experience.

When he started at Peoples, Sulerzyski said he wanted “to create a culture that was based on the employee experience.”

He believes that if you take care of employees, they take care of their customers. He also wanted to help the community, and Peoples is very civic minded. He said he has been able to make Peoples a good place to work and the company has done good for the community.

Sulerzyski said the company has high profits. While he has worked at Peoples, its total assets have grown from $1.8 billion in March 2011 to approximately $8.8 billion in April 2023. The company has also performed 10 bank acquisitions, purchased some insurance agencies and bought some speciality finance companies. The company has updated its technology and made its e-banking services more customer-friendly.

Sulerzyski has been recognized for his work at Peoples. He won the 2022 Marietta Area Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year award.

He said he felt great winning the award.

“You got to feel great,” he said. “It’s a pretty prestigious award.”

He said he married his wife Lisa Lindsay in 2016 and between them they have five children. He also has two Australian shepherd/labrador retriever mix dogs named Pepper and Jazzy.

Sulerzyski has lived in Marietta since he started at Peoples 13 years ago and said he loves “the small town feel of it.”

Sulerzyski said he retired because he has been working since he was 18 and he will be 67 in June. He said there is a very strong group of young people at Peoples who will be able to lead the company.

“I think the company is in good hands to remain independent for many years to come,” Sulerzyski said.

He is also retiring because “I think it’s just time.”

Sulerzyski will be succeeded by Peoples Bancorp Senior Executive Vice President and COO Tyler Wilcox.

He said that he has had a good run at Peoples and the employees have helped him while he worked there and deserve all the credit.

“I’m just very grateful to the employees and associates,” Sulerzyski said. “I came here in difficult times, and they were very helpful to me.”

Sulerzyski plans to move to the eastern shore of Maryland to be closer to his and his wife’s children now that he has retired.

“I very much look forward to it all.”

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com