Hancock Whitney has named Christopher S. Ziluca, a seasoned bank executive with 35 years of banking leadership and credit experience, as its new Chief Credit Officer.

Ziluca joins Hancock Whitney from Webster Bank, where he served as that bank’s CCO for the past eight years, leading a 55–member team of credit and risk professionals. He will lead Hancock Whitney’s Credit Administration bank-wide and report to Hancock Whitney President Joe Exnicios.

“As the Hancock Whitney organization grows, we continuously look for opportunities to operate more effectively while keeping in mind the need to provide for long-term executive succession in the future,” said Hancock Whitney CEO John Hairston. “His years of experience and success provide us with tremendous confidence in his ability to lead our company’s expanding credit function as we continue to grow as a premier Gulf South banking institution.”

Ziluca has extensive experience with lending activities in commercial (corporate, commercial real estate, asset-based lending, equipment financing, middle market, and small business), consumer (home mortgages, home equity lines/loans, and unsecured consumer products), and private banking sectors. He has also had substantial regulatory and examiner interaction as well as experience developing and implementing bank credit risk appetite and related scorecards/limit setting and monitoring.

“Chris brings with him not only his deep credit experience but also his proven leadership ability and his operational savvy, with technical experience building, implementing, and re-designing complex risk management systems, processes and frameworks,” Exnicios said.

Chief Credit Risk Officer Sam Kendricks and Chief Credit Approval Officer Suzanne Thomas will maintain current responsibilities and report to Ziluca.