Banker gets new opportunity

Longtime Manatee County area banker Charles Conoley — who pointedly took on regulators after a bank he founded in 1998 was shuttered in the recession — has a new job with a new bank.

Conoley was recently named vice president of government guaranteed lending at St. Petersburg-based Freedom Bank. Conoley, according to a statement, will primarily be responsible for growing Freedom's USDA Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program.

An Ohio native whose first job in local banking was with Barnett Bank of Manatee County in 1988, Conoley has significant experience in USDA rural development loans and SBA financing. USDA loans were one of the niches at Bradenton-based Horizon Bank, which Conoley founded in 1998.