First Financial Bank added Brooke Balcom to its specialty banking leadership team as director of First Financial Business Capital.

“Brooke brings a wealth of experience to First Financial and we are excited to have her join our leadership team in specialty banking, which has been an area of growth for our company,” said Brad Ringwald, First Financial’s president of Specialty Banking.

Balcom will be responsible in leading a team of specialty lenders who will support the company’s efforts in its metro and community markets for asset-based loans and cash-flow transactions, as well as cover select financial sponsors pursuing similarly structured transactions east of the Rockies.

Before joining First Financial, Balcom spent 15 years at Fifth Third Bank. She served as an investment portfolio analyst in Treasury, then as a relationship manager focused on growing the bank’s large corporate relationships in New England. She spent the last eight years as a senior relationship manager providing asset-based and cash-flow lending with a focus on developing private equity relationships.

“I’m excited to join First Financial to bring highly-structured products to small and middle market businesses in our communities,” Balcom said.

Cincinnati-based First Financial Bancorp is a bank holding company with $8.2 billion in assets, $5.5 billion in loans, $6.2 billion in deposits and $826.6 million in shareholders’ equity.