PORTLAND (AP) – After 15 years at the helm of Portland-based Banknorth and its predecessor Peoples Heritage, William Ryan says he hopes he’s remembered as someone who fought to keep jobs in Maine.

“I’m always going to live in Maine,” he said. “I’d love my legacy to be that I was a very good community banker.”

With last month’s purchase of a controlling interest in Banknorth Group by Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group, some worried that the state’s seventh-largest employer might be moving jobs out of Maine. Banknorth employs 2,600 people in Maine, with an annual payroll of more than $30 million, and donates more than $1.5 million annually to causes throughout the state.

No jobs will be lost as a result of the purchase, Ryan said, and he and the rest of Banknorth’s management team will stay in Maine for at least the next three years.

Ryan stands to lose up to $6 million in deferred compensation if he leaves Banknorth before then, and has said he plans to stay at Banknorth for five more years, then retire at 65.

He came to Maine to help rescue Peoples Heritage from near failure, then led Banknorth’s transformation into the largest banking company based in New England, with assets totaling $30 billion in six states.

Ryan said that experience makes it worthwhile for TD Bank to keep him at Banknorth’s helm, to inspire confidence among customers and investors as the sale moves forward.

“They’re buying Bill Ryan and what the team has accomplished,” he said

TD Bank CEO Ed Clark assured Ryan during preliminary talks that the purchase wouldn’t lead to job losses and that Ryan and his team could stay. Ryan never got those guarantees in preliminary talks with other banks, he said.

He pointed to the experience of Rhode Island and Citizens Financial Group as the best model for the future of Banknorth.

The Rhode Island bank was purchased in 1988 by Royal Bank of Scotland, which kept the CEO and top managers. It has since expanded to be the seventh-largest bank in the United States.