The leader who took Essex Savings Bank from $110 million in assets to $525 million in assets is retiring.

President and CEO Gregory Shook will step down after 22 years at the bank and a 47-year career in the industry, Essex Savings Bank announced this week.

Shook will be succeeded by the bank’s chief lending officer, Senior Vice President Diane Arnold, who will become its 18th president since the bank’s founding in 1851.

“The best part of banking is building long term relationships and I am so appreciative of everyone’s support and trust over the years. I am extremely  proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together for both our customers and the communities in which we serve,” Shook said in a statement. “It has been both my great privilege and honor to work with so many dedicated and talented people – the absolute best. I am confident that Essex Savings Bank will continue to garner new relationships and remain an outstanding business serving the personal and business banking, trust and investment needs of the community.”

A Westport, CT native and Madison resident, Shook began his career as a management trainee in 1974 in a subsidiary of Philadelphia National Corp., Signal Finance and Mortgage, Fairfax, Virginia, managing its Cleveland office. He came to Essex Savings Bank by way of Branford Savings Bank, where he helped take the bank public in 1991. At Essex, he led the bank through a period of asset and branch footprint growth while the lender also grew its financial services arm from $700 million to $3.2 billion in assets under management and grew its trust division from nothing to $871 million.

He was also a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston from 2015 to 2019 and a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Depository Institution Advisory Committee (CDIAC) for two years, helping the Fed understand the needs of small banks.