For Immediate Release: May 19, 2008

Eileen C. Bagnoli has been confirmed by the state Senate to a five-year term as a member of the New York State Higher Education Services Corp. (HESC) board of trustees, announced President James C. Ross today. HESC is the state agency that helps people pay for college.

Bagnoli is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Pioneer Bank in Troy, NY. Her career at Pioneer began in 1972 as a teller. She held several managerial and executive posts and was promoted to her current position in 2003. Pioneer Bank is a community bank headquartered in Troy, NY, with $750 million in assets and 15 branch offices throughout the Capital Region.

“I hope I will be able to provide to this highly esteemed board a perspective that encompasses a sincere, lifelong commitment to education with the practical experience of a career community banker,” said Bagnoli. “I am energized at the prospect of supporting and guiding an organization whose mission is so simple, but so very powerful – ‘We help people pay for college,’” she continued.

In addition to her career, Bagnoli is active in several professional and community groups. She is chair of the board for the Commission on Economic Opportunity of the Capital District and has served for 20 years on the board of Helping Hands School in Clifton Park, New York, a non-profit school for special-needs children.

She is also past board treasurer of the Salvation Army of Troy, past president of the Group III Officers’ Forum for the Community Bankers Association of New York State, past president of the Albany Chapter of the National Association of Bank Women and past chair of the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce Leadership Institute.

Bagnoli will soon be honored for her distinguished career as one of eight “Women of Excellence” by the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“We are fortunate to have Eileen’s expertise in the banking industry to help maintain HESC’s leadership position in the student financial aid industry,” said Ross. “She will be an asset, not only to HESC, but to all the students and families we serve throughout the state,” he said.

Bagnoli is a graduate of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and the Graduate School of Banking conducted at Brown and Fairfield Universities, as well as the Executive Development Program of America’s Community Bankers. She is a Capital Region native and resides in Ballston Lake, N.Y.

About HESC: The New York State Higher Education Services Corp., (HESC) is the largest in-state student loan guaranty agency providing more grant and scholarship money to college students than any other state in the nation.

The state agency provided $831 million through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to more than 381,000 students and guaranteed more than $4.5 million in federal loans in academic year 2006-07.

HESC administers New York’s 529 College Savings Program, a nationally-acclaimed program which boasts more than $7 billion in assets, and also handles more than 25 state and federal grants and scholarships.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Ronald S. Kermani, HESC’s senior vice president for communications, at (518) 473-1264. His home phone is (518) 456-5160 and beeper is (518) 422-3906. Kermani’s e-mail is rkermani@hesc.org.