Veteran Banking Leader Michael Mathis Joins Pinnacle in Chattanooga, Mark Feemster Moves Into Leadership Role

Mathis joins four others on the firm’s local leadership team

Michael Mathis, a 31-year banking veteran in the Chattanooga market, is joining Pinnacle Financial Partners. Mathis, formerly the market president for Regions Bank, will be the firm’s Chattanooga president and work on a leadership team with Chairman Craig Holley, Regional President Kenny Dyer, Area Executive Mark Feemster and Area Manager Ryan Murphy.

“Michael is one of Chattanooga’s top business and civic leaders, and we are pleased he has chosen to join the Pinnacle team,” said Craig Holley, Pinnacle’s Chattanooga Chairman. “He’s a well-respected, veteran banker who brings deep knowledge and experience to our firm at a time when our growth trajectory is steep and climbing higher. We want to be Chattanooga’s bank, and this team is going to get us there.”

Mathis has decades of local banking experience and is deeply embedded in the business community. He has spent his entire career in Chattanooga, beginning at the Pioneer Bank in 1991. He also worked at the FSG Bank before joining Regions in 2003. Mathis, along with Feemster, will manage the Client Advisory Group, made up of 18 financial advisors who provide business, commercial and private client services to companies and their owners throughout the region.

“Joining the Pinnacle leadership team is an opportunity I couldn’t refuse and the only one that could have caused me to make a change at this time,” Mathis said. “I get to work with some of the best bankers in the market and contribute to the continued growth and success of an exciting firm that does things differently than almost any other bank. I am ready to do my part.”

“Michael and I worked together for a number of years at Pioneer Bank,” said Kenny Dyer, Pinnacle’s regional president. “His leadership will help accelerate Pinnacle’s already strong growth and momentum in the Chattanooga market. I will work closely with Michael and Mark as we continue to recruit talented, experienced bankers who can help us grow our market share.”

Feemster was part of the founding group of bankers that started CapitalMark Bank & Trust and was most recently a financial advisor at Pinnacle’s Broad Street office. With his new responsibilities, he will lead a team of commercial bankers in the market. Murphy holds a similar leadership role for retail and small business banking. Together with Holley, Dyer and Mathis, they will set the strategy and direction for Pinnacle’s work in the entire market.

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 began serving Chattanooga in 2015 when it acquired CapitalMark Bank & Trust. The firm is the fourth-largest bank in the market in terms of deposits and is also one of the fastest growing. Pinnacle was named a top 10 Top Workplace in Chattanooga by the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

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.