For immediate release: Jan. 7, 2009
José S. Suquet, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pan-American Life Insurance Group Inc., has been appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch. R. King Milling, who serves on the board of directors for Whitney Holding Corp. and Whitney National Bank, has been reappointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch. Their terms began Jan. 1, 2009, and run through Dec. 31, 2011.
Suquet has served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pan-American Life Insurance Group Inc. since 2004. Suquet led Pan-American Life through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, directing an emergency recovery plan that streamlined the company's operations and staff, eliminated unproductive agencies, outsourced critical services and divested noncore businesses. In 2006, he engineered the company's conversion from a mutual to a mutual holding company and completed the sale of the company's headquarters building.
Suquet is the chairman of the United Way Campaign 2008, board member for the Ochsner Health System and member of the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region. He has been involved in professional and industry associations as former chairman of LIMRA International, former member of the board of trustees of the American College, former director of the Greater New York YMCA and former trustee of the Browning School. Suquet received a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Miami.
Milling serves on the board of directors for Whitney Holding Corp. and Whitney National Bank. In December 2008 he retired as vice chairman of Whitney Holding Corp. and Whitney National Bank., a role he held since March 2007. He began his leadership at Whitney in the mid-1980s. Prior to joining Whitney, Milling was a partner at the law firm of Milling, Benson, Woodward, Hillyer, Pierson & Miller, which he joined in 1965.
Milling serves on the board of directors of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a group designated to facilitate the state's recovery following hurricane-related destruction. He also serves as chairman of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration and Conservation. Some of his other memberships include the Louisiana State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the Financial Services Roundtable. His community board memberships include Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Dillard University, Tulane Law School Dean's Advisory Commission, Greater New Orleans Education Foundation and New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. Milling received his bachelor's degree from Washington & Lee University in 1962 and his law degree from Tulane University in 1965.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta branch directors provide economic information from the branch territory to the district bank's president and head office directors, who use the information in formulating monetary policy and making discount rate recommendations.
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., appoints three of the directors of the New Orleans Branch, and the Atlanta head office directors appoint four. Suquet was appointed to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's New Orleans Branch by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. Milling was appointed by the Atlanta head office directors.