Talking Points: John Rindlaub, CEO, Wells Fargo, Northwest Region

PROMOTION: While I will miss my friends, Im highly motivated to move to Hong Kong where I can connect our strong U.S. presence with our business in Asia. We have 2,500 employees in 12 Asian countries. I served in the Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War, I worked in Tokyo for Bankers Trust in the late 1980s and I worked in Hong Kong for Bank of America in the early 1990s.

OPPORTUNITIES: One of the important developments in Asia has been the creation of a middle class in places like China, India, Singapore and Malaysia. The Asia model has gone from an export-driven model to more of a consumer story, so there is a growing market there. There are huge opportunities for makers of building materials who are suffering from a slow market in the Northwest. I recently had lunch with a manufacturer of garage doors that sees export opportunities in New Zealand and Australia.

ECONOMY: A lot of our customers had to cut back on hiring and put off investments in plant and equipment during the great recession. Companies with revenues of more than $20 million are well poised to participate in any recovery. But we havent had the growth in small business that you usually get after a recession. Small businesses have been struggling. Many of them are using home equity loans or credit cards to fund themselves and thats become more problematic.

YOUTH: I was born in Saddle River, New Jersey. My father was the treasurer of American Reinsurance Company, and after he retired he cofounded MBIA [a financial services holding company]. I learned all about reinsurance and bond underwriting and accounting from my dad.

MANAGEMENT: As a 24-year-old lieutenant in Vietnam, I was responsible for three divisions. Underneath me were boatswains mates who had been there for a long time and knew the business. You give them responsibility but then you hold them accountable for the results. My leadership style today is to hire great people and then encourage them. The other simple lesson I learned in the Navy was to praise in public and reprimand in private. I came away with a huge love of country and the people who are in the military.

POLITICS: Politically, Republicans are in a minority here, but I dont think conservatives and conservative principles are in a minority. Its pretty much recognized that we cant fund social causes if we dont have a good economy. Everybody agrees we need to do a better job with education and transportation if we want to attract businesses to the region. When I was at the Washington Roundtable, we asked 100 CEOS what their highest priority was when locating a business. The number one thing was having a good airport. So building the third runway at SeaTac was huge. The second thing was schools: Executives want good public schools where they can send their kids.

WELLS FARGO: About 40 percent of businesses in Washington have some kind of commercial relationship with Wells Fargo, up from about 10 to 12 percent 10 years ago. For the vast majority, we would be their main bank. On the deposit side, Wells Fargo is number two in Washington state (with more than $10 billion in deposits) after being fourth or fifth for many years. We now have 4,300 employees in the state. Our biggest competitive advantage is that while we are a national bank, we operate locally. The vast majority of our customer relationships are with privately owned family businesses. We have a local credit team that can commit up to $75 million to support our client relationships. Business owners like to know that a banks decisions are based not just on numbers but also on the people, their ethics and what they are doing in the community. Everybody wants to lend to you in good times, but many have retreated in hard times. We want to be there for customers on a consistent basis throughout the economic cycles.

CULTURE: So many companies are set up to focus on the deal. But when we go to work, our first order of business is to take care of each other. Then we work together as a team in support of our customers. Our reward system is not just built around how much money did you make but how you benefited other areas of the bank.

FUTURE: My loans are up substantially this year in the Northwest. Weve had really strong growth. We are seeing middle market commercial companies starting to borrow more, whether its for acquisitions or to build inventory. We have seen great improvement in the fish catching and processing business, where we have great expertise. One of our bankers is well known in the fisheries industry, with 30 years of experience. Agriculture has also been a growth sector.

INVESTMENT BANKING: Through Wells Fargos acquisition of Wachovia, we have terrific investment banking capabilities. We handled 10 investment banking transactions for local customers last year. The execution is not here, but the relationship is here.

HOBBIES: I love producing videos. I bought an 8-millimeter movie camera as a kid. I bought a tape recorder to try to sync the music and voice with the film. When they came out with nonlinear editing, I was an early adopter. I just finished a great project for a college reunion recreating a great raft race we had in college against a rival fraternity.