Pinnacle Financial Partners Recruits High-Performing Team for Expansion Into North Florida

Pinnacle Financial Partners has entered the North Florida region with the addition of five veteran financial services professionals to build the firm’s presence from their homebase in Jacksonville. Scott Keith will serve as Pinnacle’s regional president for North Florida, with Debbie Buckland and Bryan Taylor by his side as area managers. Financial Advisor Vaughn Winmond and Credit Analyst Fatima Bowen round out the initial team, which is expected to grow rapidly as more associates come on board to offer a full suite of financial services for business and personal needs.

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“This is a dream team of financial professionals with deep local roots who will build Pinnacle as a new bank offering something brand new to the market,” said M. Terry Turner, Pinnacle’s president, CEO and co-founder. “Our model of an unbeatable workplace culture and unmatched client service has proven successful across the Southeast. That’s the kind of bank Jacksonville and North Florida deserve. The area is very similar in makeup and growth to many of the other communities we serve, and it’s dominated by the same megabanks who are vulnerable to a challenger brand like ours. It’s a perfect recipe for doing what we do best.”

Keith comes to Pinnacle with more than 34 years of local experience in financial services. He was most recently the regional president of North Florida for Truist, where he helped build a leadership team in the wake of the SunTrust-BB&T merger and led 1,100 associates serving more than 100,000 clients. He is a board member and treasurer for the North Florida Land Trust and a past chair and trustee of Gator Bowl Sports and JAXUSA Partnership. He retired from banking in 2021 but decided to re-enter the workforce for the opportunity to build a new bank in his hometown.

“This feels like the culmination of my career to this point,” Keith said. “Jacksonville is where I started and where I fell in love with local banking. We need a financial institution focused exclusively on service and advice and with a commitment to doing so consistently. That’s what Pinnacle is famous for throughout the Southeast. To be one of the teammates who can bring that to North Florida, with an entrepreneurial spirit at a founder-led firm, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”