Wells Fargo turns out banking talent

Look at what’s fallen off of the Wells Fargo wagon.

It’s a whole market-load of banking experience – from executives to tellers – all trained and ready to go.

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An inventory of the region’s banking executives will show that a large percentage of them were a part of Wells Fargo or one of its predecessor banks – Norwest Bank and, before that, Denver-based United Bank.

Jim Barnett, president of the Bank of Choice’s Larimer County market, actually started his banking career at a small community bank in Kansas. He began working in Colorado in 1979 with United Bank, which later became Minnesota-based Norwest.

He said there were numerous training programs available to him.

“That’s one of the reasons I stayed,” added Barnett, who remained with Norwest until 1991.

Barnett said that while community banks typically do not have the resources to offer internal training programs, there are other options available. Other options include the Center for Financial Training in Denver, the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado in Boulder, as well as several out-of-state programs.

First National Bank of Fort Collins also offers an internal training program. The organization has its own multifaceted training program.

But even First National’s own chief executive owes his early training to a Wells predecessor.

“I started my banking career with the management training program at the holding company headquarters in Minneapolis,´ said Chris Osborn, president of First National Bank.

“As a whole, the banking industry hasn’t done a great job with training,” Osborn added. “We’re committed to do the opposite.”

First National recruits candidates for the various programs internally and externally. He didn’t want to elaborate on how many people use the training programs each year.

Osborn said the benefits of training surpass the possibility of turnover. In many cases, people trained at First National Bank have gone into other industries, but continue to work with the bank. In those cases, the training continues to be a benefit.

But when does training become a burden more than a benefit?

Banker boot camp

Wells Fargo might have found that line with an experimental training program it instituted as it made the transition from Norwest to Wells.

Eric Berglund, vice president and loan officer with Centennial Bank of the West, said he was a part of a trial training program Wells offered to him and only a handful of others.

The program was one year of intensive training geared toward business banking.

“The great thing about the program is that it covered everything and anything you need to know about banking,” Berglund said. “I think it was a great background, giving me the tools and knowledge I need to advance in my career.”

But the program hasn’t survived, according to Berglund. It was possible that the training was too hard to implement nationally, too expensive or both.

“We were paid full-time to learn,” he said. Wells still offers training programs, although nothing as extensive as the program Berglund went through.

Now, the banking giant offers a myriad of different programs administered in unique ways, according to Cristie Drumm, Wells Fargo’s Colorado spokeswoman. Some are offered in classrooms, some are Web-based and others are more hands-on.

Drumm said that the key to Wells’ training program is the flexibility involved with the different training options.

“That’s really the reason we offered a different program,” she said.

Drumm said it’s hard to estimate how many employees are in a training program at any given time. She did indicate that all of the company’s approximately 340 Northern Colorado employees have access to training.

The company spends millions on training every year, a costly endeavor considering the high turnover in today’s banking industry.

“Training has always been very important,” she said. “It’s so much a part of what we believe; we continue to make that investment.”

Tuition paid

And the investment reaches into the world of community banking.

Sarah Burchett came to Wells through the acquisition of First Choice Bank. While at Wells, the bank paid her tuition at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado. She said she also received on-the-job training. Burchett now works at the vice president of commercial lending at Bank of Choice.

The entire executive team at Greeley’s New West Bank came through the United/Norwest training program.

“We all came through the same training programs,´ said Bill Hertneky, CFO and COO at New West. Leroy Leavitt, president and CEO, Tim Croissant, Eaton branch president and Lonnie Ochsner, senior vice president and senior credit officer, all went through the training programs that Hertneky was able to take advantage of.

Hertneky started his banking career at United Bank. The institution offered an intense, one-year management training program, which he took advantage of.

“Norwest brought to the table excellent training programs,” he said.

Hertneky said that small banks offer experiences that cannot be taught and are not available at most large banks. Financial counseling is a skill often learned by employees of community banks.

Small advantage

This might be a reason that Wells sees some of its top executives picked off – the small bank’s ability to work directly with customers and counsel them.

In large banks, the loan decisions are often made at a central headquarters, and local loan officers might not even know why one of their customers was turned down for a loan.

A return to the small bank values was what Rob Stumbaugh, former Wells regional business banking president in Fort Collins, was looking for when he made his career change.

Stumbaugh began working for First Community Bank as the regional president in early July.

Stumbaugh was with the institution now called Wells for more than 20 years. He started at United Bank as an intern before graduating from college.

“They had the best commercial development program in the Rocky Mountain region,” he said. “I got into that and it kind of started my career.”

Stumbaugh said he didn’t make his decision lightly. He saw his move to First Community as a return to his early banking career, especially since many of the new executives were at First Community were also former Wells employees.

Earlier this year, First Community also tapped Wells Fargo’s talent, hiring Douglas Woods as the president of the Colorado Springs area. Woods previously served Wells as senior vice president and regional business banking manager.

Stumbaugh could easily list about 10 bankers that went through the Wells/Norwest/United system who are currently working as executives at other Northern Colorado institutions, including the Home State Bank’s Suzanne Pullen, vice president of private banking, and Steve Fobes, senior vice president.

“You look around and the United legacy is very obvious,” he said.