Sponsor Spotlight: Pinnacle Financial Partners

Pinnacle Financial Partners is a place for people to find true partners for their business. With a strong dedication to corporate social responsibility, Pinnacle’s mission promotes their business and staff to prioritize volunteer projects, charitable donations, and affordable housing efforts. The Carolina Theatre of Durham is proud to have Pinnacle as a generous supporter of the arts and culture cultivated within the theater and in downtown Durham. 

We sat down with Mark Miller, Financial Advisor at Pinnacle, to learn more about their organization’s history and partnership with the Carolina Theatre. 

Our associates have been serving the triangle for over 20 years and many have been banking this area even longer. We are a full-service firm whose goal has been to serve businesses, their ownership and their employees. With that kind of mandate, it means we must be capable in all aspects of finance. To sum it up, we can do everything that the Chase’s or Goldman Sachs’ of the world can do but what distinguishes us is the connection you have to your banker and our people. We often talk about distinctive service and we fulfill that promise. We’re a bank that when you call us, you get a person on the phone; you never have to go through one of those frustrating prompts to ultimately get to a person. We’re there answering the call and meeting your needs immediately.

We work with industrial clients, municipalities & local governments, non-profits, mom & pop small businesses and the everyday person. We work to help clients streamline their financial services so they can focus on the other demands of the day. One of the things I am most proud of was helping clients during the SBA’s PPP program. Our firm took a deep dive into the program and rolled out the functionality to help clients quickly get the funds they desperately needed in a dark time. Myself and many other Pinnacle associates were here over late nights and weekends to make sure we could get our clients every penny that qualified.

In these cyclical times over long periods, what we see is that competition is fierce. In boom times of the low-rate environment we saw for 15 years or so, people were rushing to do things like build buildings, open new businesses, and buying homes. As rates have climbed, people are more cautious to make a big decision with a higher rate but there is still business to be done. I think what people don’t think about often enough is that while you may get the lowest rate on a loan somewhere or the highest rate on a deposit, do they really know their banker? In many cases, the answer is no. Having a real relationship with a banker is a really important thing to have in these times where everything has become so impersonal. Our clients know that when they need something, we’re the contact they can reach directly and that we’ll go to bat for them.

Pinnacle is a huge supporter of the Arts & non-profits and The Carolina Theatre is a shining example of that in Durham. I personally love Fletcher Hall. It is steeped in History and when you walk in to see a performance you feel that energy in the air. It’s important to us, as it should be to every Durham citizen, to support the arts in this community because if we don’t have the arts, Durham wouldn’t have the soul of creativity that it has always fostered. We are fortunate to have so many Durham residents who have made a huge impact to the arts & culture like Andre Leon Tally in publishing and fashion, Ernie Barnes in art, Branford Marsalis in music as well as many others like 9th Wonder & Nneena Freelon. We hope to help organizations like the Theatre keep the dreams and aspirations of young artists alive in well in the community.