GULFPORT, Miss., Dec. 17, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At yesterday's regular monthly board meeting, the Hancock Holding Company (Nasdaq:HBHC) and Hancock Bank boards of directors further defined the respective roles of chief executive officers Carl J. Chaney and John M. Hairston by electing Chaney as President and CEO of Hancock Holding Company, Hancock Bank, and all subsidiaries and naming Hairston as CEO and Chief Operating Officer.
The boards previously approved Chaney and Hairston as CEOs in December 2006.
"Chaney and Hairston represent Hancock's longstanding, team-oriented succession strategy that has sustained the company's strength and stability for 110 years. These expanded titles clarify the functional leadership responsibilities each CEO has assumed since his appointment in 2006," said Hancock Holding Company Chairman of the Board George A. Schloegel, who will retire at year-end as a 52-year employee of Hancock Bank but remain Hancock Holding Company chairman.
Executive Vice President D. Shane Loper will continue to serve as Hancock's chief operations officer.
Chaney, a former partner and director of the financial institutions group at Watkins, Ludlam, Winter, & Stennis, P.A., joined Hancock Holding Company as chief financial officer in 1998 with extensive experience in banking, with an emphasis in bank regulation, securities, SEC compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. As financial consulting manager for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Hairston was the project manager who implemented operating and technology practices across the Hancock franchise in 1992. He became Hancock's chief operations officer in 1994. Chaney and Hairston succeed Schloegel and the late Leo W. Seal, Jr., as the seventh and eighth chief executives of the company since Hancock's 1899 founding.
With assets of approximately $6.7 billion, Hancock Holding Company is the parent company of Hancock Bank (Mississippi), Hancock Bank of Louisiana, Hancock Bank of Florida, and Hancock Bank of Alabama. Hancock Bank -- an FDIC insured institution consistently rated one of America's strongest, safest banks -- operates 164 banking and financial services officers and 136 ATMs across a four-state I-10 corridor market spanning south central Louisiana, south Mississippi, southern Alabama, and north Florida. Bank subsidiaries include Hancock Investment Services, Inc., Hancock Insurance Agency and its divisions of Ross King Walker and J. Everett Eaves, and Harrison Finance Company.
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