Dana Sanders Named Pinnacle's Chief Audit Executive

Pinnacle Financial Partners today announced that Dana M. Sanders will become chief audit executive effective March 16, 2020, with responsibility for the internal audit team, processes and reporting. She assumes the role from Kevin McDermott, who came out of retirement temporarily in 2019 to help establish Pinnacle’s internal audit function and build a team. Sanders also will join the firm’s senior leadership team, and Chief Financial Officer Harold Carpenter will resume the role of principal accounting officer.

“Dana is smart, skilled and straightforward,” said Terry Turner, Pinnacle’s president and CEO. “She knows our company inside and out and will help us as we continue to enhance our internal audit function to meet the needs of a bank of our size. I am confident she will give the objective perspective we need to help protect our clients, associates and shareholders.”

Prior to this role, Sanders was principal accounting officer at Pinnacle and had also been its financial reporting manager. She came to the firm in 2009 from KPMG, where she served as an audit senior audit manager for a variety of clients primarily in the Nashville market, including Pinnacle. She has extensive experience in a number of areas of the finance side of corporate management, overseeing the Firm’s accounting policy and SEC reporting processes, among other functions. Sanders also worked extensively on the firm’s six mergers and acquisitions since 2015. 

 “I spent a number of years as an auditor and spent my last three years in public accounting on the Pinnacle audit,” Sanders said. “I plan to combine that skillset with the experience, knowledge and, most importantly, relationships I’ve gained through my time here. I was in a position to observe and examine various elements from across the organization and see how they worked together to make a collective impact on our performance. I plan to put all of those pieces together to lead this function with consistency and transparency.”

Sanders earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Middle Tennessee State University and holds memberships in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants. She is a member of the Leadership Nashville Class of 2020 and is a graduate of the Scarlett Leadership Signature Executive Program. Sanders serves on the board of the Sexual Assault Center and is a member of Impact Nashville.

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 2019 deposit data from the FDIC. Pinnacle earned a spot on 2020 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For^® in the U.S., its fourth consecutive appearance. appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For seven years in a row.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $27.8 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2019. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 12 primarily urban markets in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia and Atlanta.

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