Longtime local J.P. Morgan Chase Bank executive John Daniel has been named Hancock Whitney Bank’s new market president for the Baton Rouge region.
He succeeds his former Chase colleague, Robert Schneckenburger, who left Chase for Hancock Whitney in 2016 to become market president and has since been promoted to president of the bank’s western division.
Daniel says he wasn’t looking to leave Chase, where he worked for 31 years, adding Hancock Whitney came after him with an offer too good to refuse.
“It would have been very easy to stay there another three or four years and retire because it is difficult to change jerseys after 31 years,” says Daniel, who was executive director and senior vice president of government and higher education banking at Chase. “But they made me the perfect offer. I would not have left Chase for any other bank but Hancock Whitney, and I would not have gone there in a lateral move—but the stars lined up.”
Daniel’s move comes as Hancock Whitney is aggressively expanding its presence in the local market. The Gulfport, Mississippi-based bank, which recently rebranded and unveiled a new logo earlier this week, saw the largest percentage increase in market share of all 35 financial institutions doing business in the local market in 2017.
Hancock Whitney is the third-largest bank both statewide and in Baton Rouge. It finished 2017 with more than 11% of local market share and nearly $1.8 billion in deposits—up from $1.6 billion in deposits and 10% of market share in 2016.
Schneckenburger told Daily Report earlier this week he wants Hancock Whitney to be number one in the market in the next five years. Daniel says his goal as market president is to help achieve that growth by “continuing to look for opportunities and help lead an all-star team that is already doing well.”
Daniel is the latest of dozens of upper level executives to have swapped jerseys in the local banking sector in recent years. Hancock Whitney, in particular, has been aggressive about poaching talent from rivals. Daniel says he counted two dozen senior executives who have left Chase for Hancock Whitney in the past five or so years
