Pinnacle Recruits 7 for Atlanta Riverwood Team

Additions include experienced financial advisors Richard Carswell and Heidi Nelson

Pinnacle Financial Partners has hired seven new associates for its Atlanta Riverwood office in a variety of roles.

Veteran financial services professionals Richard Carswell and Heidi Nelson have joined the team as a financial advisors. Carswell has 15 years of experience, most recently as a middle market banker for Truist in Atlanta. Prior roles with Truist, formerly BB&T, include regional corporate banker and market president for Southwest Atlanta. He earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Georgia.

Nelson brings 28 years of experience, most recently as a commercial banking leader at Wells Fargo in Atlanta. She also has served as a loan team manager for Wells Fargo and as a credit risk manager/senior credit officer for SunTrust Bank in Atlanta. Nelson earned her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University.

“Richard’s experience managing and servicing the largest and most complex relationships in Atlanta and Heidi’s well-rounded background in everything from credit risk management to business development to financial analysis make them a great fit for our team and for our commercial clients,” said Rob Garcia, Pinnacle’s Atlanta president.

In addition, Tanya Armstead and Sonya Julius have joined Pinnacle as financial advisor assistants. Armstead brings nine years of experience, most recently as a private wealth commercial assistant for Synovus Bank in Atlanta. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Upsala College in East Orange, NJ. Julius has 19 years of well-rounded financial services experience and joins from Truist, where she served as a portfolio manager. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC.

Salwa Williams joins the firm as a credit advisor, and Kyle Karempelis is a credit analyst. Rounding out the new hires is Shelia McPherson, a treasury management analyst.

Williams brings seven years of credit underwriting experience from Wells Fargo, where she served as a portfolio manager. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. Karempelis joins from Cadence Bank, where his roles included relationship manager and senior credit underwriter for commercial real estate. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia.

McPherson brings 27 years of experience to her role at Pinnacle, most recently from Synovus Bank, where she was a senior analyst in the treasury management department.

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 2021 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S., its fifth consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For eight years in a row and No. 1 among banks with more than $10 billion in assets in 2020.

Pinnacle expanded to Georgia in 2020 by hiring a team of local financial services professionals to start an office in Atlanta.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN, in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $35.4 billion in assets as of June 30, 2021. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 14 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.