Pinnacle Bank, Sumiton

Words by Micah Harrison | Images by Al Blanton

Kristie Tuggle’s banking career began almost by happenstance.

A native of the small Tutwiler community near Oakman, Kristie graduated from Martin High School before attending Walker State Technical College in Sumiton. No one in her family had a background in banking, and she hadn’t envisioned a career in finance.

“I just knew I was going to get some college courses in and go to work,” Kristie says.

The college helped connect students with potential employers, and Kristie was given an interview with First National Bank of Jasper. On September 12, 1991, she began working there as a bookkeeper, helping customers with checkbooks and answering general inquiries.

In 1994, Kristie received her first promotion, moving into the loan department as a loan processor. Five years later, she transferred to First National’s Dora branch as a loan officer.

After years of gaining experience in different areas of banking, Kristie took another step in her career in June 2010, accepting the branch manager position at Pinnacle Bank in Sumiton.

Sixteen years later, the role has proven to be a natural fit. However, Kristie says much of what she knows about leadership came through experience.

“Most of my experience has been on the job, of course, because that’s how you learn most of it,” she says.

Her management style reflects the trust she places in her team. Kristie describes herself as a laid-back manager who gives employees the autonomy to handle their responsibilities.

“I’m pretty easy to get along with as a manager,” she says. “I just expect everybody to do their job, and as long as they do their job, they don’t necessarily hear anything from me.”

In addition to overseeing the branch, Kristie manages its lending operations, working with customers through some of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.

“I make consumer, commercial, mortgage loans,” she says. “I can help somebody buy a car, a house, a business.”

Over the course of her career, however, Kristie’s work has become about more than transactions and loans. After transferring to East Walker County, she moved to Dora in 2001. She and her husband, Britt, an East Walker native, now live in Sumiton, where they raised their children, Tyler and Kaytlyn.

After more than two decades of living and working in the area, the people who walk into Kristie’s bank are often the same people she encounters throughout everyday life.

“I love my customers,” Kristie says. “I work with them, I’m neighbors with them, my kids went to school with them. It’s not just banker and customer—we’re friends.”

For a career Kristie never planned on, banking has given her more than three decades of professional growth and a front-row seat to the lives of the community she now calls home. 78