The Huntington National Bank hired industry veteran Christopher Wood to grow its capital markets activities that help corporate and sponsor-owned companies finance investments, acquisitions and other strategic transactions.

Wood will serve as executive managing director of capital markets and sponsor coverage and join Huntington Commercial Bank's leadership team. In this capacity, he will lead corporate finance, sponsor coverage, syndicated and leveraged finance, investment grade and equity capital markets efforts to help accelerate growth in each of these areas. His teams will target corporate and private equity clients across commercial and middle market segments.

Wood's hiring comes after a series of geographic and vertical expansions for Huntington Commercial Bank, as well as Huntington's acquisition of Capstone Partners, a middle market investment bank and advisory firm. The bank recently expanded its middle market banking presence in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas, in addition to launching a diverse range of new specialty industry verticals to serve more clients nationally.

Wood will join Huntington from Truist Securities, where he was head of the financial sponsors group and previously head of syndicated and leveraged finance. Prior to his nearly two decades at Truist and its predecessor companies, he was a principal at Bank of America within its securities division.

"Chris is a well-known leader in the financial sponsor space with an impressive record of creating and executing successful leveraged finance and investment banking strategies," said Scott Kleinman, president of Huntington Commercial Bank. "As our segment continues to grow, Chris' expertise and proven leadership will add tremendous value for our clients."

"Chris has a long history of working with corporate and private equity clients while building high-performing teams to serve their complex needs," added Matt Milcetich, executive managing director in Huntington Capital Markets. "His addition makes our capital markets business even stronger and will allow Huntington to accelerate our growth."

Wood is scheduled to start at Huntington in March. He will be based in its Charlotte office.