Ryan Hess
Lake Charles,LA
Summary
Accomplished Chief Lending Officer with over 15 years of experience in leading strategic lending operations and driving financial growth, supported by an MBA in Finance. Demonstrated success in optimizing loan portfolios, enhancing risk management, and increasing profitability through innovative strategies and data-driven decision-making. Skilled in building and leading high-performing teams, streamlining processes, and implementing strategic initiatives that align with organizational goals. Eager to leverage my comprehensive financial expertise, strategic vision, and leadership capabilities in a Chief Executive Officer role to propel organizational success and drive transformative growth.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
Work History
Chief Lending Officer
CSE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
08.2022 - Current
- Spearheaded the development and execution of comprehensive lending strategies, resulting in substantial loan growth within the first year
- Implemented Encompass/ICE Mortgage lending software and established relationships to sell mortgages on the secondary market, including government lending programs
- Responsible for rewriting company lending policies related to real estate, consumer, credit card, and business lending activities
- Actively lead a team of over 50 lending professionals, fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture to achieve lending targets and enhance customer satisfaction
- Implemented risk management protocols, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and reducing the institution’s exposure to non-performing loans, and established key relationships with corporate clients, resulting in the rapid growth of overall commercial lending activity
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to introduce digital lending solutions, streamlining the loan origination process and enhancing customer experience through faster approval and closing times.
Vice President - Commercial and Middle Market Banker
HANCOCK WHITNEY CORPORATION
11.2018 - 08.2022
- Actively solicits new and prospective loan and deposit relationships for the Bank
- Develops and executes a business development plan to achieve established goals and objectives
- Implements a disciplined contact schedule to promote client satisfaction, retain existing clients, attract long-term profitable customer relationships, and become the client's trusted financial partner through needs-based solutions
- Identify cross-sell opportunities for each assigned relationship
- Markets to assigned clients and prospects a broad range of financial products
- Build internal relationships with other departments such as Product Management, Treasury Management, and Credit Underwriting to enhance the overall banking relationship, ensuring the customer's business objectives are met
- Provides guidance/assistance to less experienced Commercial Bankers to develop a thorough understanding of bank products, services, credit standards, bank pricing parameters, and business development programs/automated systems
- Primarily work with companies with annual revenues between $10 million and $50 million.
Vice President and Market Development Manager – Sulphur and Hackberry Branches
SABINE STATE BANK & TRUST COMPANY
08.2017 - 11.2018
- Primarily responsible for the Business Development and efficient operation of managing full-service branches within the assigned area
- Develops new deposit and loan business; provides superior customer relations and promotes the sales and service culture through coaching, guidance, and staff motivation; achieves individual and branch sales goals through new business sales, referrals, and retention of account relationships.
Vice President and Area Manager – Sulphur and Westlake Branches
LAKESIDE BANK
01.2017 - 08.2017
- Maintained continuous oversight of branch performance by comparing against key performance indicators, initiating corrective measures to exceed expectations.
- Cultivated strong relationships with key stakeholders, including customers, vendors, regulators, and community leaders to promote collaboration and long-term success.
- Led cross-functional teams for the successful completion of major projects, resulting in increased efficiency and client satisfaction.
Branch Manager/Vice President
LAKESIDE BANK
06.2015 - 01.2017
- Maintained continuous oversight of branch performance by comparing against key performance indicators, initiating corrective measures to exceed expectations.
Assistant Branch Manager/Assistant Vice President
LAKESIDE BANK
07.2014 - 06.2015
Certified Mortgage Loan Originator/Business Development Officer/Branch Manager
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
03.2012 - 06.2014
Consumer Lender
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
03.2011 - 03.2012
Management Trainee Program
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
01.2010 - 02.2011
Bank Teller
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
08.2008 - 12.2009
Education
Masters of Business Administration (MBA) -
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX05.2024
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY – GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BANKING
01.2020
Professional Certification -
ABA Commercial Lending School
Dallas, TX05.2018
LBA Leadership school
12.2017
Skills
- Loan Servicing
- Operational Efficiency
- Credit analysis
- Relationship Management
- Commercial Lending
- Financial Accounting
- Corporate Financial Statements
- Team Collaboration
Accomplishments
- Started the Treasury Management department.
- Build out an internal ALCO model to capture our cost of funds for 2025, allowing for robust scenario analysis.
- Built a cost-of-funds calculator to implement a transfer pricing mechanism on commercial loans.
- Restructured the real estate department staff and functions to include a Quality Control/Post Loan Closing area while substantially increasing productivity, procedures, and talent management.
- Wrote formal procedures and rewrote a substantial portion of the policies.
- Added a Home Equity term loan product and completely rebuilt the HELOC product to allow instant access to funds, etc.
- Implemented secondary market lending.
- Implemented Encompass as the LOS in the real estate lending department.
- Redesigned the consumer risk rating credit tiers to help promote higher-yielding loan growth.
- Rewrote a large portion of the Consumer Loan Policy to reduce risk and encourage loan growth.
- Implemented automated loan decisions through Zest AI.
- Rewrote the credit card policy and built procedures for the department while overseeing a complete overhaul of that area.
- Implemented contactless credit cards (consumer and business).
- Expanded the commercial lending staff and grew portfolio by over 25% during the first two years.
- Established the company’s first set of procedures for the Business Lending area.
- Created an incentive program for real estate lending and commercial lending.
Activitiesandorganizations
- ALLIANCE FOR POSITIVE GROWTH, BOARD MEMBER, 01/2021, 12/2024
- ABA NATIONAL COMMERCIAL LENDING SCHOOL, ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, 2019, 2021
- West calcasieu chamber of commerce, BOARD MEMBER & TREASURER, 2017, 2022
Training
- COMMERCIAL LENDING SCHOOL
- Consumer Lending
- Mortgage lending regulatory training
- Financial statement analysis
- SELF EMPLOYED BORROWER ANALYSIS
- ADVANCED COMMERCIAL LENDING TRAINING
- TAX RETURN ANALYSIS
Timeline
Chief Lending Officer
CSE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
08.2022 - Current
Vice President - Commercial and Middle Market Banker
HANCOCK WHITNEY CORPORATION
11.2018 - 08.2022
Vice President and Market Development Manager – Sulphur and Hackberry Branches
SABINE STATE BANK & TRUST COMPANY
08.2017 - 11.2018
Vice President and Area Manager – Sulphur and Westlake Branches
LAKESIDE BANK
01.2017 - 08.2017
Branch Manager/Vice President
LAKESIDE BANK
06.2015 - 01.2017
Assistant Branch Manager/Assistant Vice President
LAKESIDE BANK
07.2014 - 06.2015
Certified Mortgage Loan Originator/Business Development Officer/Branch Manager
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
03.2012 - 06.2014
Consumer Lender
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
03.2011 - 03.2012
Management Trainee Program
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
01.2010 - 02.2011
Bank Teller
FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF LOUISIANA
08.2008 - 12.2009
Masters of Business Administration (MBA) -
Texas A&M University
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY – GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BANKING
Professional Certification -
ABA Commercial Lending School
LBA Leadership school
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