Jan 24, 2018

John Adzema National Associates Inc. , an employee benefits administration firm in Rocky River and subsidiary of Canfield's Farmers National Banc Corp., has named John Adzema as its new president. In the role, Adzema will lead overall operations for National Associates. He replaces Gerrit Kuechle — the second-generation owner of the business, founded in 1946, when it was acquired by Farmers in 2013 — who recently retired. Adzema most recently worked with Cleveland's CBIZ Inc. as their regional sales director for the Midwest. He was hired by Mark Wenick, executive vice president and chief wealth management officer of Farmers National Bank , who joined the firm last June to manage its growing wealth management business. Prior to Farmers, Wenick was the Mahoning Valley regional president for Michigan's Chemical Bank . "Farmers is delighted to welcome John to the helm of National Associates. National Associates is a unique service offering for our bank, and one that we're proud to provide our clients," said Wenick in a statement. "With the addition of John to the organization, we're not only gaining his expertise in this area of retirement services, but we're also adding his leadership and vision for continuing to grow this area of the wealth management division." According to a news release from when Farmers bought National Associates in June 2013, the latter business had 17 employees and assets under administration of about $500 million with oversight of more than 200 retirement planning accounts. A spokesperson for Farmers said National Associates has 10 to 15 employees today. The business is growing, but the spokesperson declined to disclose current revenues or assets under administration. Farmers National Bank — the Farmers banking unit that used to brand itself as The Farmers National Bank of Canfield but is using the shorter name now — currently counts about $2.1 billion in assets. It's the 10th-largest bank in Northeast Ohio by deposit market share with $1.3 billion in deposits in this region. MORNING ROUNDUP Business headlines from Crain's Cleveland Business and other Ohio newspapers — delivered FREE to your inbox every morning. Sign up for the Morning Newsletter.