Corporate
Responsibility

I n 2000, we had seen the impact a local bank could make on its community. We recognized and took seriously the responsibility that comes with leading a financial institution.

Today, the same is still true.

We built Pinnacle to be a good neighbor and good citizen to the markets it serves. We wanted to help guide and grow our city by supporting the economy, investing in its success and lifting up those in need so we could all share its prosperity. We wanted to create a great place to work because associates deserve a place to learn, grow and prosper.

Today, the same is still true.

The word “responsibility” hardly does justice to the feeling we had when we founded Pinnacle 20 years ago. That implies that it’s an obligation, a series of items you tick off of a list so you clear the bar of being a “good corporate citizen.”

The items people often look for in good corporate citizens are mostly based on how you treat people and how you support your community. As we’ve made very clear, those are a fundamental part of who we are and why we exist. They are the reasons why we started this bank.

Pinnacle was built to fill the hole that’s left behind when banks become disconnected from the people and places they serve. We’re built to help lift up communities, to remove barriers and to level the playing field so we all have the opportunity to be successful.

As we’ve grown and moved into other markets, we’ve taken that spirit with us. In 2019, we helped people realize the dream of home ownership across Tennessee. We supported hundreds of causes that work toward improving economic development, education, health and human services and the arts. We continued to invest in programs important to our associates, like Rick Callicutt’s passion for building affordable new homes to turn around blighted neighborhoods in his hometown of High Point, NC.

Now we are a top 50 bank in the country, and we recognize that our passion for service and leading by example doesn’t stop at the borders of our markets. We can make a positive impact on an entire region or industry.

We were built with a commitment to service and to making a difference for people and whole communities.

We seek to make a difference for our clients:

Investing in people and communities is part of our DNA. It’s a sense of duty to remove barriers and level the playing field so we all have the opportunity to be successful.

We seek to make a difference in our communities:

Part of our commitment to people is a belief that everyone deserves a great place to work. It’s part of our calling. There’s no disputing that we’re a national leader in this area.

We seek to make a difference with our associates:

Pinnacle’s commitment to doing the right thing and focus on people extends to our shareholders. We take seriously our responsibility to regularly communicate, engage and respond to shareholder needs.

We seek to make a difference for our shareholders:

• In 2019, Pinnacle hit the benchmarks expected of publicly held companies with timely regulatory filings and quarterly investor calls to review financial performance.
• Shareholders used the open lines of communication to reach leadership and the Board of Directors, and no calls were placed to the whistleblower hotline in 2019.
• Board members continually monitor the board structure and qualification mix of its members to strive for a diversity of experience, skillsets and education, as well as ethnic and gender diversity.
• The Human Resources and Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors works with an independent advisor to assess and facilitate executive officer compensation.

Part of growing into more markets and bringing our distinctive service to more areas of the country is a belief that we can help guide the financial services industry into better practices and a greater sense of responsibility with the power we collectively wield.

We seek to make a difference in our industry:

• In 2019, we established our first Corporate and Social Responsibility Committee and set in motion a process to produce Pinnacle’s first corporate responsibility report.
• Maintained and trained leaders on our Reputation Management plan which outlines how we will engage with key stakeholders.
• We operate our corporate headquarters from a leased facility that has been designated as a LEED gold certified building.
• Two of our recently constructed bank-owned facilities have been designated as LEED certified.
• Electronic waste is recycled following strict EPA, R2 and ISO practices and federal regulations.

To summarize how we live out our commitments, we have compiled our inaugural report. You can view that report here, with much more detail available in the documents and websites linked from it.