MIDDLE ATLANTIC
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York has hired S. Stacy Eastland to be a managing director of the firms estate planning team, which works with private clients.
He has also joined the strategic wealth advisory team in the firms private wealth management group.
He was a senior partner of the Houston law firm Baker Botts LLP. He has 26 years of legal experience.
SOUTHEASTFirst Union Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., has promoted Chris McComish, president of its Nashville and middle Tennessee region, to head the companys Atlanta region.
He is to manage consumer and commercial banking operations and oversee 100 financial centers with $3.7 billion of deposits.
He succeeds Jerry Highsmith, who is to retire Tuesday.
Mr. McComish joined the company in 1987 and has held senior management posts since, including Baltimore corporate banking manager.
SOUTHWESTHibernia National Bank in New Orleans has promoted assistant vice presidents Howard M. Guidry, Yancey C. Jones, and Bruce L. DeRoche to vice president of commercial real estate.
Mr. Guidry is responsible for making construction and interim term loans for commercial real estate developments in north and central Louisiana and northeast Texas. He has 18 years of banking experience.
Ms. Jones is responsible for making such loans in New Orleans and Mississippi. She has eight years of banking experience.
Mr. DeRoche is responsible for underwriting commercial real estate loans. He has 18 years of experience in the industry.
The bank also promoted Shahla R. Canafax, a management information systems officer, to vice president of asset quality and Pamela Brown from assistant vice president to vice president of business banking.
Ms. Canafax is responsible for compiling, analyzing, and reporting financial data on loan portfolios. She has six years of banking experience.
Ms. Brown is responsible for small-business and private banking clients. She has been with the bank since 1998 and has 17 years of banking experience.
Hibernia also promoted Johnell B. Smith and Lynn M. Slaughter to assistant vice presidents in the trust department.
Ms. Smith coordinates compliance testing, client tax reporting, and regulatory reporting for the department. She was a trust officer and has eight years of banking experience.
Ms. Slaughter is responsible for the departments financial compliance. She has been with the bank since 1988 and has 30 years of banking experience.
FleetBoston Financial Corp. in Boston has hired James R. McBride to be a managing director and head of the energy group in its new Houston office.He is responsible for developing and expanding relationships with energy clients throughout the Southwest and for structuring senior debt and acquisition financings, leveraged buyouts, and development financings.
He reports to Patrick McAuliffe, group executive of Fleets industrial growth group.
Mr. McBride was the vice president of producer finance at Enron North America in Houston, where he led the origination, execution, and management of merchant finance investments in the oil and gas sector. Before that he had been chief financial officer at Baker Hughes Solutions, a division of Baker Hughes Inc. in Houston, where he had managed domestic and international business development.
Earlier, he had been a managing director and global coordinator for oil and gas financing at Bank of America. He began his banking career at Chase Securities Inc. and has 20 years of energy industry experience.
