A year after entering the market, Pinnacle Financial Partners has hired a team of 45 people in Jacksonville and expects to grow this year.
But if you’re looking for a list of job openings, you won’t find one.
“There’s no application process,” said Lauren Huynh, area manager for client services.
“It’s really by invitation only.”
Nashville, Tennessee-based Pinnacle has brought in bankers with years of experience in the Jacksonville market to build its Northeast Florida presence.
“The Pinnacle model is local people making local decisions about local business,” said Bryan Taylor, area manager for client advisory.
“Every single person that we’ve hired and every single person that we’ll continue to hire is somebody that is local,” he said.
Pinnacle recruited Scott Keith, former North Florida regional president for Truist Financial Corp., and Debbie Buckland, who had worked alongside Keith as Jacksonville market president at Truist, to lead its Jacksonville office when it entered the market in January 2024.
They reached out to other experienced bankers in Northeast Florida to grow a Jacksonville operation from the ground up.
“When we determined we were going to launch Pinnacle in Florida, I thought we would be able to bring in 15 or 20 folks that I thought were some really deep connections,” said Keith, regional president.
“We’ve got 45 folks on the team today.”
Keith has been in Jacksonville for 37 years and he said the average experience of Pinnacle’s employees is 26 years.
Founded in Nashville
Pinnacle was founded in Nashville in 2000 and has grown to a bank with $52.6 billion in assets, mainly through organic growth.
Taylor said the company has only made one acquisition, in 2017, but otherwise has expanded in other cities with the same model it brought to Jacksonville, relying on experienced bankers who are empowered to make decisions in local markets.
“We are building a community bank,” said Buckland, an area manager.
“We’re not just a loan production office or we’re not just a wealth management office” serving the main headquarters office.
“Pinnacle knew Jacksonville was a great market, just like many markets in the state of Florida,” said Keith.
“What we were looking for was the people locally who had the followership of clients in the market,” he said.
The bankers hired by Pinnacle have long-standing relationships with local businesses.
“They like talking to bankers who know what their business is,” said Keith.
The Pinnacle bankers are also plugged into new business development in the region.
“We find out when new companies are moving to town. We find when companies are expanding that one of our folks hasn’t been connected in and we’ll jump on that opportunity and show them the Pinnacle capabilities,” Keith said.
Brooklyn headquarters
Pinnacle opened a Jacksonville headquarters office in the Downtown Brooklyn area at 501 Riverside Ave., on the sixth floor, and recently opened a full-service branch on the ground floor of that building.
It also has a branch in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The main office building also is home to a Morgan & Morgan law office, which as an anchor tenant has a large sign on the top. The Pinnacle Bank sign on the building is lower and smaller.
That low-key presence is indicative of Pinnacle’s approach. You won’t see Pinnacle ads on television or in newspapers or direct mail.
“We do not do traditional marketing,” said Keith.
The bank is noticed by its involvement in community projects but also will be holding a handful of special events, including a “Nashville songwriter’s night” in April, he said.
Buckland said Pinnacle also will have a presence at The Players Championship golf tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach in March.
“We think that’s a uniquely Jacksonville experience,” she said.
Pinnacle wants to expand with five or six additional office locations in the Jacksonville area.
“We really want to be where bankers who are very successful are,” said Keith, citing Mandarin as one submarket that fits the bill.
“That would be a great spot to find and identify an office leader that would be able to know some of the businesses there, some of the financial advisers that work with businesses there,” he said.”
Culture key
Keith also said meeting the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act, the federal law requiring banks to meet the needs of all members of a community, is an important part of Pinnacle’s culture.
“We really need to lend money into the community,” he said.
Buckland said Pinnacle’s corporate culture is an important part of its recruiting process.
“It’s different than what most people know and experience at a bank,” she said.
“Will you align from a values perspective?”
Keith said when Pinnacle reaches out to potential employees, they generally aren’t looking for a new job but are impressed with the bank’s culture.
“Now that we have 45 folks on the team, they have people that they worked with who are high performers who are hearing this is a great place to be,” he said.
Pinnacle reported $138.9 million in loans in the Jacksonville market in its year-end report. Keith is hoping that will grow significantly in the next few years.
“If we can get to $2 (billion) or $3 billion in five years, it would be a monumental effort but we can do it if we hire enough of the long-time bankers in town who have followership” of customers, he said.
“Within three or four or five years, our expectation would be to have the best and largest professional banking team in the market.”