Business Hall of Fame taps Hancock Bank CEO Schloegel
for commitment to home state, Gulf South

GULFPORT, MS (May 24, 2004) - To many of his longtime banking colleagues, Hancock Bank's George A. Schloegel epitomizes an American success story who has never lost his sense of self or place, even amid recent accolades as one of Mississippi's most accomplished business laureates.

Schloegel's selection as one of four 2004 inductees in the prestigious Mississippi Business Hall of Fame marks another highpoint in a stellar business and community service career spanning nearly half a century. The Gulfport native serves as president and chief executive officer of Hancock Bank and its myriad subsidiaries - the Gulf South organization he joined as a 16-year-old mailroom employee to help support his family and has since helped distinguish as one of America's strongest, most secure financial institutions.

Hancock Bank Chairman Leo W. Seal, Jr., the veteran Gulf Coast banker who inspired Schloegel to pursue a financial services career 48 years ago and himself a Hall of Fame inductee, said that Schloegel's Hall of Fame honor pays tribute not only to Schloegel personally, but also to Hancock Bank. He added that Schloegel and his heritage follow the legacy of achievement that other Hancock Bank senior leaders - well-known South Mississippi businessmen such as the late Leo Seal, Sr., late Donald Sutter, and late Tom Milner, as well as the junior Seal - passed on to Schloegel.

"George's contribution toward the development and well-being of the Coast and our state carries a wide variety of undertakings and participations that have resulted in benefits for our citizens," Seal said.

About George Schloegel

A recognized advocate for strategic economic growth and educational opportunity, Schloegel has amassed an extensive resume of personal and professional achievement since the 1960s. His ten-years' service on the Gulfport School Board witnessed the consolidation of Gulfport East and Gulfport high schools, vastly improving the school system's efficiency, instruction, and financial stability. During that decade, he also insisted on and succeeded in preventing raises for taxpayers in the school tax millage. Schloegel helped to secure worldwide television coverage and international attention for the Mississippi Coast as chairman of the Miss USA Pageant, hosted four years in Biloxi.

Schloegel, a founder father of Leadership Mississippi and Leadership Gulf Coast, was selected as one of South Mississippi's inaugural Top Ten Community Leaders in 2002. Additionally, he remains a mentor for hundreds of banking students as a respected faculty leader at both the Mississippi School of Banking and the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. In early 2004, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour selected Schloegel as chair of Barbour's transition team. The former president of the Mississippi Bankers Association maintains a grueling cross-country travel pace to tout the Hancock story and the Gulf South's economic potential to some of the nation's top financial firms.

"During our road shows, it's truly inspiring how articulately and enthusiastically George describes to analysts and institutional investors what makes the Gulf Coast region a special place to live and do business: the people, our work ethic, our climate, our accessibility, our diverse economy, and our natural resources," said Paul Guichet, Hancock's investor relations vice president.

Schloegel, a dedicated family man with four children and nine grandchildren, is an ardent historian with exceptional knowledge of South Mississippi's evolution from a campsite on the Old Spanish Trail to a thriving tourism and business destination. He was a driving force behind construction of an exact replica of the Ship Island Lighthouse - a familiar Gulf Coast landmark that burned in 1972 and Hancock Bank's corporate hallmark - according to original 1886 blueprints. A horse enthusiast with a passion for raising Paso Finos and Peruvian Pasos, Schloegel is an avid gardener who, with his wife, Peggy, grows the bedding plants that eventually grace the grounds of Hancock's 103 Gulf South locations. The Schloegels attend St. James Catholic Church in Gulfport.

The Mississippi Business Hall of Fame

Only 58 business leaders have earned Mississippi Business Hall of Fame status since the award was established in 1989 by Junior Achievement of Mississippi, Inc., to laud significant contributions to the growth and development of Mississippi business. Other 2004 Mississippi Business Hall of Fame honorees selected from a pool of 100-plus nominees by a statewide committee of business leaders and business deans were Daniel A. Grafton, CEO of L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace in Madison; Jim A. Payne, CEO of Payne Enterprises (formerly of UAD Laboratories) in Jackson; and Lawrence W. Warren, CEO of Warren Paving in Hattiesburg and Gulfport.

The local roster of past Hall of Fame inductees includes Alf Dantzler of Pascagoula, a past chairman of the Hancock Bank Executive Committee; Tommy Munro of Biloxi, former president and CEO of Munro Petroleum; and Jerry St. Pe' of Pascagoula, former president and CEO of Ingall's Shipyard.

Past honorees of national acclaim include John Bryan of West Point, president of Sara Lee Food Company; Fred Carl of Greenwood, president of Viking Range Corporation; Billy Howard of Laurel, president of Howard Industries; Hartley Peavey of Meridian, president of Peavey Electronics; Joe Frank Sanderson, Sr., of Laurel, former chairman of Sanderson Farms (Miss Goldy Chicken); E.B. Robinson, Jr., of Jackson, former chairman of Deposit Guaranty Bank; and Bill Yates of Philadelphia, MS, president of W.G. Yates & Sons worldwide construction company.

Hancock Bank: Strength, Stability, Integrity, & Service

Founded in 1899 and rated among the top 4.6 percent of United States financial institutions for financial soundness, Hancock Bank operates 103 full-service offices and more than 140 automated teller machines throughout South Mississippi, Louisiana, and the Florida Panhandle. Bank subsidiaries include Hancock Investment Services, Inc., Hancock Insurance Agency, Magna Insurance Company, Hancock Mortgage Corporation, and Harrison Finance Company. Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ: HBHC), the parent company of Hancock Bank (Mississippi), Hancock Bank of Louisiana, and Hancock Bank of Florida, has assets of $4.4 billion. Additional corporate information and online banking and bill pay services are available at www.hancockbank.com.

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