in 1988, he was elected to the board of directors of progressive bank, inc., a publicly held holding company based in pawling and later fishkill, new york, which owned pawling savings bank. in 1991, aposporos was elected progressive's chairman of the board and served until the merger of progressive into premier national bank, and then to the sale of premier in 1997 to a bank holding company owning m &amp; t bank of buffalo, new york.