Joe DiNicolantonio, who served as Chattanooga city president of Regions Bank a decade ago when the bank acquired the former AmSouth Bancorporation, moved back to the Scenic City last October with his wife.
At the time, DiNicolantonio was still working as executive vice president for Regions Bank in Birmingham, Alabama, but Chattanooga was still closer to the Regions headquarters than was Memphis where he previously lived.
"Our boys had just graduated from high school and were in college (at Clemson and Appalachian State) so we decided to move back to Chattanooga because we really like this town," DiNicolantonio says about his new home near the riverfront downtown.
Last month, the 50-year-old veteran banker left Regions Bank after 14 years to take another job in downtown Chattanooga as Tennessee market president for Atlantic Capital Bank (ACB).
"With ACB's approach to helping the community and empowering its employees, this gives me an opportunity to help a community that I love to grow and thrive," he says.
DiNicolantonio will oversee the 17 offices that Atlantic Capital operates across East Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, which the Atlanta-based ACB acquired from the former FSG Bank in 2015 when the former First Security Group merged with Atlantic Capital. FSG once operated 36 branches across its footprint, but the current and former owners have sold or consolidated those offices into fewer offices as part of the bank's strategy to focus more on mobile, online banking services and business clients.
But after more than 25 years in banking at Barnet, AmSouth, Regions and now Atlantic Capital, DiNicolantonio insists that banking is still personal. A Lakeland, Florida native, DiNicolantonio has worked in nearly all aspects of banking, including in his previous role overseeing small business lending across the 15-state service territory for Regions Financial Corp.
"Banking is still a relationship, face-to-face business and people are still key to our business," DiNicolantonio says. "Being able to help people and businesses to grow and meet their financial needs is what I love about banking."