Wells Fargo Commercial Banking Names Eastern Head of National Food & Agribusiness Division

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), which has extended more credit to U.S. food and agribusiness than any bank, has named Neal Crapo (pronounced Cray-po) to the new post of Eastern Region head for the company’s recently formed National Food & Agribusiness Division. He will lead the division’s expansion in the East, and its headquarters will be based in Charlotte.

Most recently, Crapo served as senior vice president and regional manager of the Wells Fargo Carlsbad/Desert Regional Commercial Banking Office with locations in Carlsbad, Palm Desert, and Brawley, California. He led a team of commercial banking professionals who provide loans, treasury management, and deposit products to middle-market companies and production agriculture/agribusinesses with annual sales in excess of $20 million.

“Wells Fargo is committed to serving the U.S. food and agriculture industry, and we’re recruiting top talent to lead our specialized lending team in the markets where our customers live and work,” said Rob Yraceburu, head of the company’s National Food & Agribusiness Division. “Neal and his team will leverage Wells Fargo’s national reach and financial strength to grow our support of an industry with deep roots in the East.”

Crapo, a 20-year company veteran, began his career as an intern with Wells Fargo’s Regional Commercial Banking Office (RCBO) in Fresno, California. After completing the credit management training program, he returned to the Fresno office as a relationship manager. There, the customer base was 66 percent agribusiness, ranging from dairy and nuts to row crops and vineyards. Crapo’s experience in financial services includes more than 12 years managing commercial banking relationship portfolios. In 2002, Neal was a loan team manager in the New Mexico RCBO, and in 2006 he was tapped to open and head a new Commercial Banking office in Visalia, California, more than 90 percent of the customers were agribusinesses.

“My family and I are excited for the East Coast move,” said Crapo. “The food and agribusiness industry is full of great people and great businesses, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to build out longstanding relationships with the wide variety of customers in the region.”

Crapo holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and an M.B.A. (with distinction) with an option in finance from California State University, Fresno. He and his family will relocate to Charlotte early next month.

In April, Wells Fargo announced the appointment of Yraceburu as head of its new national line of business. Formerly, Wells Fargo served agribusiness through its network of Commercial Banking offices, supported by a centralized and specialized Agriculture Industries Department. Now, the company will provide agriculture lending through regional offices that bring Wells Fargo agriculture expertise closer to customers in markets east of the Rockies. Yraceburu expects to name leaders for the Upper Midwest/Canadian and Southern regions of the National Food & Agribusiness Division this summer.

Wells Fargo’s Eastern Region of the National Food & Agribusiness Division includes the U.S. east of the Mississippi and serves customers in a wide range of sectors, including beef, fresh fruit and vegetables, cotton, poultry and eggs, grains, and floriculture. In North Carolina, more than 40 different types of floriculture crops are grown and the state continues to be the leading state in the nursery crop production of evergreen and Christmas trees. Florida is No. 1 in production value of oranges, grapefruits, and sugarcane. The establishment of a regional food and agribusiness organization will reach an untapped market for Wells Fargo, which has the depth and breadth to support customers’ capital needs through all economic cycles.

About Wells Fargo’s National Division of Food & Agriculture

With regional and industry experts throughout the U.S., Wells Fargo provides resources to help meet the needs of agribusiness in various sectors, including dairy farmers, food processors, nurseries, and vegetable, fruit, and nut growers. The company also provides financial resources to help businesses grow while also managing risk. Understanding the impact of regional, national, and global economic conditions, Wells Fargo offers specialized financing for all areas of agribusiness, including input supply, production, processing, wholesale distribution and retailing.

Wells Fargo supports agriculture in other ways as well. For instance, Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS), a wholly owned subsidiary, is the nation’s largest crop insurance provider, offering risk management protection for more than 100 crops in all 50 states through a national network of more than 5,000 professionally trained and licensed independent agents. It provides multi-peril crop insurance and livestock policies offered through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA), as well as crop hail, flood, named peril, as supplemental and stand-alone insurance products.

About Wells Fargo Commercial Banking

Wells Fargo’s Commercial Bank serves middle market businesses with annual sales above $20 million. Nationwide, Wells Fargo is the No. 1 commercial bank in the markets it serves. In addition to providing a world-class customer experience for our clients, Wells Fargo Commercial Bankers are also committed to being good citizens, from charitable giving to volunteering to public service.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than 270,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2012 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

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