Lynn K. Giroux, formerly senior vice president and chief administrative officer of Essex Savings Bank, has assumed a new role as senior vice president and chief operations officer.

Giroux has almost 40 years of banking experience, having spent the last 22 at Essex Savings Bank, overseeing Human Resources, Compliance, Branch Administration, Deposit Operations, Loan Administration and Facilities.

Giroux also has chaired the Center for Financial Training and CBA Bankers Forums, serving as ambassador and member for the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce and on the board of Camp Hazen YMCA.

A member of the Society for Human Resource Professionals, the American Bankers Association, and the Connecticut Bankers Association, Giroux also has participated as a panelist for the Vermont Bankers Association’s Women in Leadership Conference, the Connecticut Bankers Association as well as other compliance-related organizations.

Giroux was the recipient of the 2014 Women of FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate), a prestigious award given by The Commercial Record to women who have achieved excellence and make a difference in these traditionally male-dominated fields. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont, as well as the New England School of Banking.

East Lyme High has Merit Scholar semifinalists

Richard Chen, Mason Gallo and Jenny Guo, currently seniors at East Lyme High School, are three of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring.

These students entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 PSAT/NMSQ Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and a high school official must also submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist's academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

In addition, East Lyme High principal Deb Roselli Kelly announced that Nicole Hahn, Ryan Huang, Aditya Kabra, Michael Leone, Alicia Lin, Evan Lombardo, Grace Lui, Yurina Shirai and Xingyang Zhang have been named Commended Students in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Commended Students will not continue in the 2022 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards but are placed among the top 50,000 scorers who entered the 2022 competition by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

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