Robert Schneckenburger, the high profile market president of JPMorgan Chase in Baton Rouge, is leaving the position he has held since late 2010 to assume a top leadership role at Whitney Bank in Baton Rouge. Chase Senior Vice President Jeff Gould also is departing for Whitney with Schneckenburger.
Executives at Hancock Holding, which acquired Whitney in 2011, officially notified local Whitney management of the development in a Feb. 1 conference call, according to multiple sources. The move becomes effective March 16.
At Whitney, Schneckenburger will serve in the newly created position of regional market president. Henry Schexnayder, who has served as Baton Rouge market president since 2013, will remain in his position and report to Schneckenburger. Gould will serve as group manager for mid market and corporate lending at Whitney.
Schneckenburger has declined to comment on the move, as have officials at Whitney. A spokesman for Chase, however, says the bank remains committed to commercial lending in this market and will replace the departing executives.
“We are actively recruiting bankers, both inside and outside our firm, to serve our commercial clients in Baton Rouge, which is very important to Chase,” says Greg Hassell, a Chase spokesman. “These new bankers will be active in the community, just as our leaders have always been.”
In the interim, John Kallenborn, who heads commercial banking in Louisiana out of the Chase New Orleans office, will work in Baton Rouge until replacements are hired, Hassell says.
The development suggests that nearly four years after its acquisition by Hancock, Whitney has worked through its transition and is poised for aggressive growth in the market, according to industry experts.
“This is a good move for them,” says Jonathan Briggs, a New Orleans-based banking expert and managing director of Performance Trust Capital Partners, who was not specifically aware of the leadership shakeup. “They had a difficult transition after their merger with Hancock but they weathered it and are absolutely committed to Louisiana.”
Schneckenburger and Gould both bring decades of experience and longstanding personal relationships in the local business community with them to Whitney. Schneckenberger joined Chase Bank, then Premier Bank, in 1993 as a vice president of commercial lending. He became market president when Kevin Kelty stepped down for health reasons. Gould joined the institution in 1983.
—Stephanie Riegel
