Mark Bensabat, president of Chase Bank’s Baton Rouge operations for the past 15 years, has been promoted to lead the company’s commercial banking in Florida. “This is a great opportunity,” says Bensabat, who will serve as CEO of Chase’s Middle Market Banking in Florida. While Chase has a major retail presence in Florida, thanks to its acquisition of Washington Mutual, there was very little commercial banking going on in those branches. “We want to leverage all those locations and become a force in the marketplace,” Bensabat says.
Kevin Kelty, who currently works in Dallas as head of Chase’s Technology Corporate Banking Group and its South Corporate Banking Group, will take over as Baton Rouge president. Kelty, who has 25 years of experience in banking, is a DeRidder native and LSU graduate who earned a bachelor’s in finance in 1982 and an MBA in 1983. “I’m looking forward to putting deep roots down in a community and becoming active in Baton Rouge,” he says.
While Kelty will start working in Baton Rouge next week, Bensabat will maintain a local office through midsummer, in order to ensure a smooth transition. “The hardest part is leaving here,” Bensabat says. “But this is something I felt like I had to do.”—Timothy Boone
