Pinnacle scoops up Truist team to lead D.C. expansion

Pinnacle Financial Partners in Nashville, Tennessee, has hired away six Truist Financial executives to lead its expansion into the Washington, D.C., area.

The $36.5 billion-asset Pinnacle announced Monday that it has named Carolyne Pelton, formerly the director of aerospace, defense and government contracting at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Truist, as regional president for the National Capital region. Pinnacle also hired Lauren Shields, Masha Loughlin, Jessica Green, Matthew Nader and Bruce Sharp away from the $530 billion-asset Truist.

Shields, Loughlin and Green, also worked in Truist’s aerospace, defense and government contracting division along with Pelton, while Nader led a commercial real estate team in Maryland. Sharp held a variety of credit and sales roles at Truist, and most recently was CEO of a home health care company called FosterBridge.

The new team will work out of a temporary space in the Tyson’s Corner of Virginia area before moving to a permanent location in 2022, Pinnacle said.

Pinnacle’s decision to open an office in the D.C. area market follows a similar organic growth strategy it’s recently employed in other markets, such as Atlanta, Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama. The company, which has not made an acquisition since it bought BNC Bancorp in North Carolina in 2017, has also recently hired veteran bankers in specialties such as equipment, franchise and solar finance lending.

“Our growth goals for these markets remain intact, though obviously our goal is to outperform in all of our new markets next year,” President and CEO Terry Turner said in a press release. “Pinnacle has earned a reputation as a leader in this style of market expansion because we can act quickly in putting together a team, launching an office and putting down deep roots in communities that are new to us.”

The company estimates that its move into the nation’s sixth-largest metropolitan market would add $250 million to $350 million to its loan book in 2022. The cost of the expansion is expected to reduce earnings per share by 2 to 3 cents next year.

In an investor note, Stephen Scouten, an analyst at Piper Sandler, said he expects Pinnacle to continue its strategy of hiring more experienced lenders rather than growing through acquisitions.

“Frankly, we would expect to see the bank outperform these [loan] growth expectations,” Scouten said, adding that the short-term hit to earnings in 2022 is “a very reasonable cost for expanding into one of the stronger markets in the country.”