Mayer says he and his team will focus on broadening its product offerings and deepening its already established relationships with the Commercial Bank and Wells Fargo Capital Finance. “We are going to push hard on the commercial side and while we’ve historically done business with Wells Fargo Capital Finance, I think we can do more going forward,” he says.
In terms of its product offerings, Mayer notes, “While we have 12 to 14 different businesses, we haven’t done much in technology leasing and finance and that’s something we need to take on. I’ve been in discussions with our senior management team and we are working on our plan in that segment. In the past, John clearly articulated that we wanted to make sure that we had the right people in various industries. We’ll continue along that path with the right people who have the right experience.”
Other initiatives include fine tuning both internal processes and external interactions with customers. “We’ve done a good job in that regard, but in this day and age, we’ve got to do even better. We’ll be spending a lot of time and money on our technology – whether it be externally for our customers or internally to have us be more efficient so we can respond to our customers’ needs more quickly.”
With less than one month on the job under his belt and initiatives taking shape on all fronts, Mayer says there isn’t much that keeps him up at night. “No, there isn’t much that keeps me up at night other than trying to learn as much as I can … I’m doing a lot of late night reading these days. Of course, the industry is hyper-competitive with tons of liquidity out there. We’re seeing many small to regional banks expanding their efforts in equipment finance. At Wells Fargo, we’ll continue to focus on our customers and do what’s right for them.”
As for today’s competitive environment, Mayer states, “We’ll have to weather the storm.”
When we spoke with Mayer’s predecessor last fall, John McQueen emphasized the importance of maintaining a proper balance between career demands and personal relationships. We took the opportunity to find out more about Mayer on a personal level.
Born in the City of Brotherly Love, Mayer is a self-proclaimed “Philly guy” with a passion for ice hockey. He has resided in Boston with his wife Cynthia since he joined the Wells Fargo organization. “I met Cynthia at Penn State when we were freshmen and I married her four months after we graduated in 1985.”
Like his predecessor (who also shares his passion for ice hockey), Mayer and his wife have two daughters. “We are extremely proud of both of them. Our eldest, Brittany has just graduated from Penn State and has joined the work force. Katherine, our youngest, is beginning the process of applying for college.”
Meanwhile back at WFEF, Mayer looks forward to carrying the torch handed to him by his predecessor. “John has done a great job of building a great business by putting a terrific team together and I have some very big shoes to fill…”