Former LifePoint CEO joins FB Financial Board

Nashville Post
Addition comes ahead of body’s planned growth via Franklin Financial buy

AUTHORS Geert De Lombaerde

Bill Carpenter, the former chairman and CEO of LifePoint Health, has been elected to the board of FB Financial, the parent of FirstBank that will soon have $10 billion in assets.

Carpenter was a founding employee of Brentwood-based LifePoint in the late 1990s and was its CEO from 2006 until late 2018, when he retired after guiding the hospital operator through its union with fellow local company RCCH HealthCare Partners. He is still a member of that company’s board.

“His addition will expand our board’s depth of expertise and ensure that we continue to deliver the best results for our shareholders,” FB Financial Executive Chairman Jim Ayers said of Carpenter. “His wealth of knowledge and experience in health care, the practice of law and leadership of a publicly traded company will be great resources for FB Financial as we continue to expand our footprint, increase our market share and bring excellence to our operations.”

Carpenter, who led the health care group at Waller Landsen Dortch & Davis before helping launch LifePoint, has served on the boards of directors of the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals and the Nashville Health Care Council. He earned both his bachelor’s and law degrees from Vanderbilt University.

Ayers and his executive team led by CEO Chris Holmes two weeks ago announced they plan to pay more than $600 million for Franklin Financial Network. That deal, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter, will make FirstBank the No. 6 deposit holder in Middle Tennessee and one of the largest community banks in the region. Three Franklin Financial directors — they have yet to be named — will join the FB Financial board at the transaction’s closing.

FB Financial executives also are preparing to close on its acquisition of a small bank in the Bowling Green area, which will give it its first on-the-ground presence in Kentucky.