Selected by County Executive Steve Neuhaus; Term to Expire in 2024

GOSHEN, N.Y. – Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus announced Monday (Jan. 14) that William Vacca has been appointed to the SUNY Orange Board of Trustees.

Vacca, a New Windsor resident, is Walden Savings Bank’s Vice President of Business Development and has 52 years of banking experience.

“Bill Vacca brings vast fiscal and professional experience to the Board,” Neuhaus said. “He cares deeply about the college and the community and I have complete confidence in his ability to assist the college in implementing its mission. Working with the other Trustees, Mr. Vacca will continue the tradition of excellence that we have all come to expect from SUNY Orange.”

Vacca has served as Walden Savings Bank’s Vice President of Business Development since 2013. He is responsible for assisting branch managers with existing clients and prospects and promoting bank products and services. He also works closely with new businesses as part of the bank’s Commercial Lending Team.

Vacca previously was Senior Vice President of Retail Banking at Sterling National Bank (1997-2013). He started his banking career in 1966 at Key Bank and worked there until 1997 when he left as Senior Vice President, Cash Management. Vacca serves on The Arc of Orange County’s Board Directors and on the Hudson Valley Food Bank’s Advisory Board. He is a past chairman of the boards of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, the Orange County Partnership and the American Heart Association Heart Walk.

“I would like to thank Orange County Executive Neuhaus for my appointment to this hard-working and prestigious board,” said Vacca, who attended SUNY Orange in 1962-63 and was drafted by the U.S. Army less than a year later. “I am honored to be serving SUNY Orange with the other dedicated board members.”

The SUNY Orange Board of Trustees is comprised of 10 members. County Executive Neuhaus and Governor Andrew Cuomo appoint five and four members, respectively, and a student trustee is selected from the student body. The SUNY Orange Board of Trustees typically meets on the third Wednesday of each month throughout the year, except for its summer retreat in June. The Board does not meet in July and August.

Full terms for SUNY Orange Trustees are typically seven years. Vacca, a SUNY Orange graduate, was appointed to a term that will expire on June 30, 2024.

“The SUNY Orange Board of Trustees welcomes the appointment of Bill Vacca to the Board,” said Sister Margaret Murphy, vice chair of the Board. “We are confident that Mr. Vacca will be an asset to our Board. He joins us at an exciting time for the College. It's also appropriate at this time to recognize the wonderful contributions of outgoing Trustee Joan Wolfe, who served our Board and the College with great distinction for 16 years.”

SUNY Orange was founded in 1950 as the first county-sponsored community college in the State University of New York system and was the first two-year college in the nation to offer the associate degree nursing program and studies in electron microscopy. More than 420,000 people have enrolled in a wide range of credit and non-credit classes at the Middletown campus, the Newburgh Campus and satellite locations across Orange County through the years.

For more information, contact Justin Rodriguez, Assistant to the County Executive for Communications and Media Relations at (845) 291-3255.