Pinnacle and Synovus on Thursday laid out the expected C-suite roster for the combined company once the merger of equals has closed.

“By uniting Pinnacle’s proven high-growth banking model with Synovus’ strategic investments in solutions, technology and scale — and leveraging the strengths of both organizations’ engaged talent and loyal client bases — we’re building a foundation for exceptional performance and enduring success,” Synovus CEO Kevin Blair, who will serve as president and CEO of the combined company, said in a news release. 

Nashville, Tennessee-based Pinnacle and Columbus, Georgia-based Synovus have each set up integration management office teams to prepare for the merger, the banks said Thursday. 

The all-stock regional bank deal, valued at $8.6 billion when it was announced July 24, is the largest bank combination proposed during the second Trump administration. It’s expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. Pinnacle CEO Terry Turner will become chair of the board of directors.

Synovus, which has $61 billion in assets, and Pinnacle, with $54.8 billion in assets, had already said Pinnacle chair and co-founder Rob McCabe will become vice chair and chief banking officer and Synovus CFO Jamie Gregory will be chief financial officer at the combined company. McCabe will report to Blair and lead revenue-producing units for the combined company, the release said.

From Synovus: 

Zack Bishop, the bank’s current head of technology, operations and security, will become chief operating officer at the combined company. 

Shellie Creson will retain her title as chief risk officer with the combined company. 

Allan Kamensky, the bank’s general counsel, will become chief legal officer.

Jennifer Upshaw, the bank’s chief enablement officer, will become chief administrative officer.

Liz Wolverton, head of consumer banking and brand experience, will hold the title of chief digital and product solutions officer after the merger.

Matt Paluch will serve as chief of staff to Blair. He’s currently the chief operating officer of Synovus’ wholesale banking unit, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

From Pinnacle:

Dana Sanders will be chief audit executive, the title she currently holds at Pinnacle.

Charissa Sumerlin will be chief credit officer, which is her current role at Pinnacle. 

Summer Yeiser, Pinnacle’s director of associate and client experience, will become chief people officer at the combined company. 

Initial investor reaction to the deal was largely negative; both companies saw their share prices fall post-announcement. S&P Global Market Intelligence put the deal’s value at about $7.9 billion as of mid-August. 

The day after the merger was announced, Jefferies analyst David Chiaverini noted concerns given “the combined company’s larger size, cultural integration risks, and typical deal overhang associated with [mergers of equals].”

Synovus and Pinnacle executives have emphasized that the deal features minimal market overlap and “is driven by a desire to accelerate hiring and growth, not consolidate existing markets and cut costs,” Truist Securities analyst John McDonald wrote in an August note, after conversations with bank leadership.

Bank executives were enticed by a regulatory environment that “was more accepting of M&A transactions, as well as on the requirements surrounding the $100b asset threshold. There is some benefit of being a first mover on doing a deal in the Southeast as well, according to management,” McDonald wrote.

Still, there’s “strong investor skepticism of MOEs, particularly in the Southeast,” McDonald noted. 

The 2019 merger of equals between SunTrust and BB&T, creating Truist, left investors with “scar tissue … as it took longer than planned to integrate, had cultural differences between the two standalone banks, went over budget, and led to share loss,” McDonald wrote in a separate note this month.

Pinnacle’s McCabe, in Thursday’s announcement, made a point of noting “like-mindedness” between the Pinnacle and Synovus teams and enthusiasm around delivering on the merger “with minimal friction.”

Synovus’ Upshaw and Rick Arthur, Pinnacle’s executive vice president of consumer and small business banking, are leading integration efforts at their respective banks, “engaging teams from across both organizations to identify and execute top integration planning priorities,” the banks said Thursday. 

McDonald noted Pinnacle and Synovus both stressed “many of the early organizational decisions have been made in direct response to the lessons learned from the last big MOE,” such as deciding on the new management team early on, which tech systems to use, maintaining the Pinnacle brand and using existing headquarters locations.

With mergers of similarly sized organizations, cultural overlap and time to close are two of the biggest factors of success, said Daniel Goerlich, the U.S. banking and capital markets deals leader at PwC. 

“You have to basically integrate not just your operations and your banking activities, but also two sizable workforces that have their own customer culture and internal culture, which in all deals is a relatively complex task,” he said.