Pinnacle CEO Points To 222 Hires And 95% Retention As Banker-Exodus Worries Surface
Kevin Blair says Pinnacle has hired 222 experienced producers this year and expects to clear the top of its 225-to-250 target.
Pinnacle Financial Partners has hired 222 experienced revenue producers so far this year, CEO Kevin Blair said on the company's third-quarter earnings call Thursday, and he used the number to rebut investor worries that veteran bankers could walk after the Synovus merger.
Answering the exodus worry
A Bank of America analyst said some investors fear that tenured bankers and legacy Pinnacle leaders could leave, and that the merged bank could stumble 12 to 18 months from now. Blair, who is president and CEO, pushed back hard, saying he thought "somebody trying to fearmonger." The transcript is machine-generated, so the phrasing may be imperfect.
He pointed to the announcement made earlier Thursday that Rob McCabe, the chief banking officer, agreed to stay another year. "People are going to come and go," Blair said, and he called the McCabe news the best case. He added that leaders who retire have succession plans in place.
Of investors and competitors raising the issue, Blair said they are "just trying to look for an angle." Competitors had said they would take talent from Pinnacle, he said, and to this point they have not.
The hiring numbers behind the pushback
Blair put producer retention at 95% year to date, excluding merger-related synergies, and said the figure is better than in historical years. The 222 hires came from more than 100 institutions, he said, and the top 10 source banks supplied about 45% of them. He declined to name those banks, saying they are some of the largest in Pinnacle's footprint.
The bank added 96 producers in the third quarter, and Blair said October is strong enough that Pinnacle expects to clear the top end of its original target of 225 to 250 hires. In closing remarks he said revenue producer hiring is up 57% from the same quarter a year ago and voluntary turnover is 6%.
Blair said hires who have not fully moved their books carry roughly $20 billion of future loan growth, with a comparable level of deposits. Newer hires, he said, are nearly breaking even in year one and reach two to three times their cash compensation in years one to three.
A bank mid-merger
Pinnacle Financial Partners is the holding company for Pinnacle Bank, which lends to businesses and individuals, takes deposits and offers wealth and treasury services. It closed its merger with Synovus on January 1, 2026.
For the quarter, Pinnacle reported diluted earnings of $2.40 a share and adjusted earnings of $2.69 a share. Loans grew $1.7 billion and deposits $2.1 billion from the second quarter.
Pinnacle will give its 2027 outlook, including its hiring plan, in December. Conversion to one brand and one system is scheduled for March 2027.
Asked why the 2027 hiring range of 250 to 275 was left unchanged, Blair said not to read into it that pipelines are drying up.
Sources
- Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) beats Q3 2026 sales expectations — Yahoo Finance
- Pinnacle Financial: Q3 Earnings Snapshot — Associated Press
- Pinnacle Financial (PNFP) Surpasses Q3 Earnings and Revenue Estimates — Yahoo Finance
- Pinnacle Financial Partners Q3 2026 Earnings Preview (NYSE:PNFP) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Kevin Blair reflects on first nine months leading Pinnacle Financial Partners - Nashville Business Journal — bizjournals.com
