Luz L. Urrutia

CEO/President

El Banco de Nuestra Comunidad

Luz L. Urrutia is CEO/President for El Banco de Nuestra Comunidad, a division of The Peoples Bank. In her position, Luz has direct responsibility for the P&L of the branches, operations, credit and risk management, compliance, sales and marketing, customer service, product development, training and community outreach. Prior to joining El Banco, Luz was a Senior Vice President with Wachovia where she spent 18 years in various positions.

At Wachovia, Luz held positions as manager, relationship manager, sales, product development and credit officer within the Corporate Bank, Treasury Services, Capital Markets, Risk Management, Operations and Retail Divisions. Most recently, she was a Senior Vice President for the Global Services Department of Wachovia. In this capacity, she managed the International Sales, Product Development and Customer Service Groups. She developed and implemented several domestic and international Strategic Alliances in the US and overseas. During her career with Wachovia, she lived in Canada and Mexico evaluating the retail and corporate markets in these two countries. Luz was responsible for leading Wachovia’s expansion into Canada and Mexico. She also lead the development of Wachovia’s strategic alliances with Bank Mendes Gans in the Netherlands, Bancomer in Mexico, and Bank of Montreal in Canada.

Luz serves on the Boards of the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), a division of ShoreBank in Chicago, and Worthwhile Ventures, an entity that provides microfinancing worldwide. In 2006, Luz was recognized as “The Community Banker of the Year” by the American Banker for her commitment to meeting the financial needs of the unbanked and the underbanked, primarily in the Hispanic community.

Luz has spoken at various industry and regulatory conferences on how financial institutions can access the Hispanic market and serve the financial needs of these consumers who don’t have access to mainstream banking.

In April 2007, Luz was given an award and inducted to the Chapter of the Ladies and Gentlemen of Queen Isabel the Catholic in Spain for her advocacy and commitment to serving the financial needs of the underserved Latino market in the United States.

Luz is a native of Caracas, Venezuela. She holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree in Finance and a MBA from Georgia State University.