Mary Garcia Named New Regional President for South Carolina Coast at Pinnacle Financial Partners

Garcia continues leadership in Charleston while adding Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head

Pinnacle Financial Partners has named a familiar face as its new regional president for the South Carolina coast. Mary Garcia, most recently Pinnacle’s area executive for Charleston and long-time local banking mainstay, has assumed responsibility for all of Pinnacle’s commercial and industrial business from Hilton Head to Myrtle Beach.

“Mary is an exceptional leader and banker,” said Rick Callicutt, Pinnacle’s chairman for the Carolinas and Virginia. “She is a unifying force for our teams up and down the coast, and her track record as a ‘super banker’ gives us the kind of leadership we need in a region that is very important for our firm.”

See why Garcia is called a “super banker” in this video about Navy Yard Industrial Campus.

Garcia has decades of local banking experience and is deeply embedded in the business community. She has spent her entire career in the Charleston area, beginning at First Federal of South Carolina in 1986. After eight years there, she spent another 11 at SouthTrust Bank and seven at CresCom before joining BNC Bank in 2012 as city executive. She continued in that role for Pinnacle until she was named regional president for the coastal South Carolina markets.

“Pinnacle puts all its faith for strategic leadership and decision-making in the hands of local leaders,” Callicutt said. “It’s incredibly important that we have people in place who understand what clients and the community need and then work across lines of business to get the job done. Mary knows these markets better than anyone, and her client loyalty and respect reaches across a wide spectrum. Her work in Charleston is one of the reasons we’ve been able to grow our local book of business significantly. I’m thrilled to have her at the helm.”

“We have terrific teams of financial professionals serving our South Carolina clients, and I’m humbled to serve alongside them,” Garcia said. “Pinnacle is a great place to work because we’re given the freedom to do what we love and what we do best. Being a leader here means I’ll still get to work with clients, helping them and my fellow associates get what they need to be successful.”

In Charleston, Garcia has developed a reputation for getting results for clients, sometimes when others can’t or won’t, and for faithful service to community causes. She serves on the board of directors for the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, serves on the board and finance committee of the Charleston Regional Development Alliance and is on the board, executive committee and serves as finance chair of the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic.

Garcia is a member of the finance committee for Christ our King Catholic Church and is past finance chair of St. Benedicts Catholic Church. Garcia previously served on the advisory board of Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital and is a distinguished past president of the East Cooper Kiwanis Club. She is also a volunteer for East Cooper Meals on Wheels and has helped lead Pinnacle’s efforts to volunteer with the Charleston Children’s Museum.

Garcia is a graduate of East Carolina University’s RMA School of Commercial Lending. She is also a graduate of the University of South Carolina’s Bankers School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Graduate School of Banking.

Pinnacle Financial Partners provides a full range of banking, investment, trust, mortgage and insurance products and services designed for businesses and their owners and individuals interested in a comprehensive relationship with their financial institution. Pinnacle earned a spot on FORTUNE’s 2019 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For^® in the U.S., its third consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For six years in a row.

Pinnacle entered the South Carolina market in 2017 when it acquired BNC Bancorp. Pinnacle continues BNC’s practice of offering community bank service with the resources and sophistication of a larger firm.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $25.6 billion in assets as of March 31, 2019. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 11 primarily urban markets in Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia.

Additional information concerning Pinnacle, which is included in the Nasdaq Financial-100 Index, can be accessed at www.pnfp.com.