Reading, Pa.- Richard A. Ehst of Reading, Pa., Mark T. Gallagher, Esq. of Hatboro, Pa., and Christ G. Kraras of Wyomissing, Pa., were recently appointed to the Albright College Board of Trustees. They will serve three-year terms.
Richard A. Ehst is president and chief operating officer of Customers Bank. Prior to this role, he served as executive vice president, Commercial Middle Market, Mid-Atlantic Division, Sovereign Bank. He served as Sovereign’s regional president for Berks County from 2004-2009, and as managing director of corporate communications from 2000-2004.
Prior to joining Sovereign Bank, Ehst was an independent consultant to more than 70 financial institutions in the mid-Atlantic region, including Sovereign, where he provided guidance on regulatory matters, mergers and acquisitions, and risk management. He began his career in banking in 1968 following his service as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War. He is an honored member of Who’s Who Worldwide and has been the recipient of community service awards from more than 20 civic organizations over the past 30 years.
Ehst serves on the boards of several Berks County organizations, including Our City Reading, United Way of Berks County, Opportunity House, and Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He attended Albright College and Moravian College, and is a graduate of the Advanced Commercial Bank Program in the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.
Ehst is married to Angela Ehst and has five daughters and nine grandchildren.
Mark T. Gallagher, Esq. is a founding member of Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby LLP. Founded in 1991, the firm has grown from four to more than 100 lawyers with offices in four states. Presently, Gallagher devotes his legal practice to defending workers’ compensation and liability matters, including general casualty, premises, construction and sexual harassment claims. He is admitted to practice an “AV law in Pennsylvania and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and has achieved” rating from his peers as reported by Martindale-Hubbell.
Formerly, he was a Philadelphia assistant district attorney, where he served in the Felony Waiver and Rape Prosecution Units from August 1984 to March 1988.
Gallagher received a bachelor of arts degree cum laude from Albright College in 1978 and a juris doctorate cum laude from Widener University Law School. He is married with four children.
Christ G. Kraras is president and chief executive officer of White Star Tours and Travel Center, Mansion Heights Builders, Shearwater Developers, Ocean View Cove Inc., Timberline Investment Group, and several other companies. He is also a member of most national and international travel organizations.
Kraras is an active member of the Berks County community. In addition to having previously served on the Albright board from 1997 to 2009, he served as the 2008 co-chair of the United Way of Berks County Annual Campaign. He is a member of several boards, including the Reading Hospital and Medical Center, Greater Reading Convention and Visitors Bureau, Berks Arts Council, the Penn Corridor Initiative, and Berks Encore, which he chairs. Active in church affairs, he was appointed Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox Church in 1992 and is a member of Leadership 100.
Kraras earned a bachelor of arts degree from Albright College in 1969 and a master of education degree from Kutztown University.
He is married to Ann Kraras and they have a son, Dean, and a daughter, Marisa Kraras Hunsicker, and seven grandchildren.
Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Two-thirds of students graduate with dual/individualized majors in more than 200 different combinations. Albright enrolls about 1,660 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 500 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
