Seven Veteran Banking Professionals Join Pinnacle in the National Capital Region

Pinnacle Financial Partners is adding significant experience and capacity to the National Capital Region with a new manager, three financial advisors, two credit advisors and a financial advisor assistant.

“Expanding our team will allow Pinnacle to serve more clients in more ways in the Washington area,” said Carolyne Pelton, Pinnacle’s National Capital regional president. “We are fortunate to have Ken and these six associates join our team. Our client experience is already distinctly different, and adding more talented, experienced professionals to our roster allows our firm to flourish. These individuals have a heart to serve and a desire to provide distinctive service and effective advice.”

Veteran banker Ken Ayers joins the team in Virginia as a financial advisor and area manager for the region. He will lead the retail and small business banking teams in the market.

Ayers, with 30 years of financial services experience, most recently worked as market president of the Fairfax, Prince William Greater Washington region for BB&T, now Truist. Previous roles were with BB&T, where he was a retail and small business banking manager in the greater Washington and north Florida regions. Ayers also served as a retail banking manager for the company’s West Virginia North Region. He attended Mountain State University and BB&T banking school. He is active in his community and church. 

Rudy Dekrooj, a financial advisor with more than 16 years of experience joins Pinnacle from Atlantic Union Bank where she served as vice president and branch manager. Previously, she was a licensed relationship manager at M&T Bank and M&T Security, assistant vice president and branch manager for John Marshall Bank in Reston, assistant branch manager for Main Street Bank and a teller at Resource Bank in Herndon. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Tishreen University in Latakia, Syria, and an MBA from University of Phoenix.

Scott Parker joins Pinnacle as a financial advisor with more than 23 years of financial services experience, most recently at First Citizens Bank, where he served as senior vice president and commercial banker. Prior roles include senior vice president and commercial banker for the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, head of retail and small business in the Tri State region and head of retail and small business in the Tennessee region for BB&T, among others. Parker earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC and is a graduate of the BB&T management development program.

Niki Sabir brings 20 years of experience to her role as financial advisor at Pinnacle. She joins the firm from EagleBank in Tysons Corner, VA, where she served as vice president and commercial deposits/treasury officer. Sabir also served at BB&T as a program manager, retail lending associate and wealth management research associate. Sabir earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from Strayer University in Alexandria, VA. She is fluent in Urdu and Hindi.

Rori Henderson comes to Pinnacle as a financial advisor assistant. With 20 years of financial services experience, she joins the firm having previously served as commercial client specialist and business services assistant supervisor at BB&T, now Truist. Henderson graduated from University of Maryland College Park College Park, MD where she earned a bachelor’s degree in life sciences.

Jonathan Crow and Guncha Sakhatova recently joined Pinnacle as credit advisors.

Crow has 18 years of financial experience and joins Pinnacle from BB&T, now Truist, where he served as senior portfolio manager and portfolio risk officer. Prior roles include portfolio manager and business relationship manager at Wells Fargo, asset manager and business advisor at PNC bank, and portfolio manager in both wealth management and real estate finance at SunTrust. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA.

Sakhatova brings more than 10 years’ experience, most recently as a CCB/CRE underwriter and portfolio manager for BB&T, now Truist in Washington, D.C. Previous roles include CRE portfolio manager, business services officer and business services assistant at BB&T. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. She is fluent in Russian and Turkmen.

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 2021 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 entered the National Capital Region in November 2021 by recruiting six local financial services professionals to open an office in Northern Virginia.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN, in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $39.4 billion in assets as of March 31, 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.