Veteran Bank Leader Phillip May Joins Pinnacle as Memphis President

Pinnacle Financial Partners welcomed a new Memphis president today when longtime West Tennessee banking leader Phillip May joined the firm. He will work with Memphis Chairman Kirk Bailey to lead Pinnacle’s commercial and retail banking team and recruit more top-tier local financial professionals. May is based at the main local office on Shady Grove Road.

“Phillip is just the right person to help lead Pinnacle in Memphis,” Bailey said. “He helped found Metropolitan Bank more than a decade ago because he saw a need in our community for a locally focused bank that treated people right and valued service above all else. That’s exactly what we’ve been building here since 2015. His leadership will help accelerate growth, building on the enormous momentum we have.”

May comes to Pinnacle with 25 years of experience in commercial and corporate lending, nearly half of that as a Memphis and West Tennessee CEO or president. In 2007, after years as a corporate banking executive for firms like SunTrust and Regions, May helped found Metropolitan Bank in Memphis as an alternative to the big banks that dominated the market. He spent 10 years as its Memphis CEO. Under his watch, the bank grew local assets to more than $700 million to become one of the highest-performing banks in its peer group.

When Metropolitan merged with Renasant in 2017, May remained as Memphis and West Tennessee president until the end of 2018. At that time, he moved into private consulting with a focus on helping for-profit and non-profit companies improve strategies around environmental and social issues.

“This was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse and the only one that could have brought me back to banking,” May said. “I started following Pinnacle before the firm even came to Memphis. Kirk and his team have had tremendous success since then because the most experienced and well-regarded bankers in the market are here. Pinnacle already feels like home to me.”

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 seven years in a row.

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 four of the last five years. 

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $27.5 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2019. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 12 primarily urban markets in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia. 

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