Longtime West Tennessee banking leader Phillip May has joined Pinnacle Financial Partners.
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.
“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.”
