Dan Reininga has been with Lake Shore Savings Bank since 1994.

On Thursday morning, Daniel P. Reininga was taking to the road as part of a farewell tour. The retiring president and CEO of Lake Shore Bancorp, Inc., had been making the rounds in Chautauqua County on Wednesday and was headed north on this day to talk with employees in the Erie County branches.

His final day at the helm with the bank is today. “Dan served the bank with distinction through periods of rapid growth, as well as the aftermath of the Great Recession and through the COVID pandemic,” said board Chair Kevin M. Sanvidge in December. “Lake Shore is serving more communities and consumers than ever before, and much of that is due to Dan’s vision, and his team’s execution of his vision.”

Reininga on Thursday talked about the pride in the “team effort” he oversaw once taking the leadership role in 2011 at the financial institution. At that time, the bank’s assets were $488 million. At present time, those are closer to $700 million.

He joined the bank in 1994 as an outside director and was executive vice president and chief operating officer from 2010-11. “It has been a great privilege to be involved with such a fine organization for so many years,” Reininga said in a statement Thursday. “I am honored to have been a part of this great team that is genuinely focused on Putting People First. The Lake Shore Savings legacy of positively impacting the communities we serve will continue for decades to come. I extend my sincere thanks to the Board of Directors for reinforcing our vision of community banking which has been successful in serving our customers and communities for more than 132 years.”

Jeffrey Werdein, who played a prominent role in the bank’s commercial division, will become the principal executive officer on Monday.

In recent months, the bank has been dealing with the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which works under the Securities and Exchange Commission in regard to a data breach that occurred in November 2021. Though officials hadn’t found any personal information misused, the bank was ordered to create a compliance committee to monitor and oversee the bank’s compliance with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency while submiting quarterly reports to its board and OCC.

Since that July edict, Jennifer Zatkos, CFE, was named the bank’s chief operating officer and Robert Cortellucci was been named the bank’s chief technology officer in December.

Reininga earned his bachelor’s in economics from Allegheny College in 1980; received an MBA from the University of South Florida in 1987; and in 2010 gained a graduate degree in banking from the American Bankers Association Stonier National School of Banking in Philadelphia.

After college, he worked for the Talon Zipper Co. in Meadville, Pa., for five years before getting his master’s. He later joined Dunkirk-based G.H. Graf Realty Corp., Inc. a fourth-generation family business he became president of in 1993. He continues to serve as the real-estate development and property-management company’s board chair. After serving from 1993-2010 as president of Graf and as an independent director at the bank, he joined the bank’s executive management team. He plans to continue to work at Graf in retirement.

In the past, he has served on numerous boards, including the SUNY Fredonia College Foundation and Brooks Memorial Hospital. He is a member of the boards of the Gow School, Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center, and the Mikey’s Way Foundation. Reininga is also chairman of the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation’s $10 million capital campaign.

Reininga and his wife, Wendy, have four children and four grandchildren.

Founded in 1891 in Dunkirk, Lake Shore Savings Bank focuses its efforts on deposits, businesses and mortgages in Erie and Chautauqua counties. It has an 11-branch network, with 1,900 surcharge-free ATMs across Western New York, that includes locations in Dunkirk, Fredonia, Westfield, Jamestown, Lakewood, Kenmore-Tonawanda, Depew, Snyder, Hamburg, East Amherst and Orchard Park.