Pinnacle's Billie Jo Parker Honored As National Emerging Leader by American Bankers Association

Billie Jo Parker, financial advisor and area manager for Pinnacle in Memphis, was honored by the American Bankers Association as a recipient of its inaugural ABA Emerging Leader Award. This new award recognizes the next generation of bank leaders who are committed to the highest standards of achievement and service to both their industry and their local communities. Parker is one of just 11 such winners to be recognized at the ABA Annual Convention.

“This is a huge honor and not at all a surprise to those of us who have worked with Billie Jo,” said Phillip May, Pinnacle’s Memphis president. “Her work ethic, dedication and heart to serve put her head and shoulders above her peers across the country. She’s a perfect example of the deep bench of talent Pinnacle has built in Memphis. She may be an emerging leader nationally, but she’s an established leader for our team.”

Parker joined Pinnacle in 2020 from Renasant and its predecessor Metropolitan, where she was a senior managing director of private client experience and operations. She began her career at Regions Bank. Parker earned her master’s degree at Christian Brothers University and is in her second year of the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking where she is working toward a Leadership Certificate from The Wharton School. She is also the incoming chairman-elect for the Tennessee Bankers Association Young Bankers Division where she serves as an ex officio member of the state’s BankPac committee.

“I’m proud to be a banker,” Parker told the ABA. “For me, it’s been such a rewarding and challenging career path. To know that banks can help serve the communities that we’re in by helping small businesses flourish, helping families buy their first home or send their kids to college, it’s a unique and powerful opportunity that we get to be a part of.”

The winners were selected by a diverse steering committee of industry professionals. The qualities and characteristics the committee evaluated as judging criteria included dedication to the profession, inventiveness, leadership skills, mentoring ability, personal integrity, tenure at the bank and broader commitment to a career in banking, sustained career progress, and academic training including advanced degrees and certificates/certifications.

“We congratulate these high performers who have already begun to have a significant impact on our industry,” said Rob Nichols, ABA president and CEO. “These ABA Emerging Leader Award recipients have demonstrated a range of banking skills, a commitment to conduct their work with integrity and a strong desire to help their customers and communities flourish. The future of our industry is bright because of leaders like these.”

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. The firm is the No. 1 bank in the Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin MSA, according to 2022 deposit data from the FDIC, is listed by Forbes among the top 25 banks in the nation and earned a spot on the 2022 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S., its sixth consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For nine years in a row and No. 1 among banks with more than $11 billion in assets in 2021.

Pinnacle has served Memphis since 2015 when it acquired Magna Bank. Since then, Pinnacle has become the official bank of the Memphis Grizzlies and FedExForum and was named a “Top 10 Company to Watch in 2017” by the Greater Memphis Chamber. Pinnacle was named No. 1 “Best Place to Work” by the Memphis Business Journal in seven of the last eight years. 

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN, in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $40.1 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 15 primarily urban markets across the Southeast.

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