December - 2004 issue > Cover Story

By Karthik Sundaram

Peter F. Drucker, winner of the Presidential medal of freedom, management guru, and founder of the Leader to Leader institute, said, “Leaders grow; they are not made.” And with growth comes the ability for a person to be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing. Out of this understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by them comes the ability to innovate and lead. It is action, not position. Meet Sanjiv Sanghvi.
Sanghvi joined Wells Fargo Bank right out of college graduate school and has been with the financial giant ever since. With an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Sanghvi joined the commercial banking division of the bank fifteen years ago. “I took to the Wells Fargo culture of rewarding excellence, where a leader is expected to groom more leaders, not more followers.” After a stint as a commercial banking relationship manager, Sanghvi was made manager of the Palo Alto Commercial Banking Office branch, where the bank played a slightly unique role.

The traditional banking environment at the Oakland, CA operations handled the needs of the industrial clients, where it was more of “traditional” lending. The Palo Alto branch office catered to the technology domain of the Silicon Valley. “It was not about just playing a banker lender anymore,” says Sanghvi. “We were the financial services provider for the technology company—a client just plugged into our system for utilities like capital, managing cash flow, wire money, automated clearing houses (ACH), and a host of other services.” The 1996-98 years were also rapid expansion period for the technology companies that did not have too much cash to spend on its treasury management needs—and Sanghvi provided the plug-ins on seamless technology.

“Banking is about relationships—not just about being a lending agency, anybody can do that,” he says. After the stint in Palo Alto, he moved to Seattle, where the company was the fourth largest in the Washington state. The size and position of the organization made it easy for Wells Fargo to develop and nurture a good set of commercial banking clients in the treasury business. “The factors that made you successful in the past—while important and need to be retained—do not necessarily drive new customers to your business,” says Sanghvi. From a mindset of “how can we lend to you,” the need of the hour was to ask, “how can we be of service to you, and what can we do to build this relationship?” In the subsequent years, Sanghvi was responsible for the marketing area of handled wholesale banking in addition to the treasury product development, and returned to the company’s Oakland office. He calls the move into a new position a good “rounding off” experience. “I was in a position where I hadn’t done the job of the people before me, and it was a rich learning experience to gather in the valuable knowledge of the 100-odd team members.” From a customer-facing role in Palo Alto and Seattle, Sanghvi was now exposed to the internal machinations of the West coast financial behemoth. “And that was a fantastic view,” he laughs, “you never truly realize how big and intricate this bank is.” A few months ago, Sanghvi was made CEO of the Wells Fargo-HSBC Trade Bank, succeeding outgoing CEO Dave Weber of Wells Fargo.

“The most remarkable element in this was the name itself—one partner is one of the largest service provider in domestic commercial banking, including the treasury management business that was helping clients transact global deals, and the other was a global bank, with a presence in over 79 countries,” says Sanghvi. The Trade Bank—named one of “The Major Trade Banks” by World Trade magazine in April 2004—is an equity joint venture between Wells Fargo and HSBC. The only nationally chartered bank dedicated exclusively to international trade, The Trade Bank helps U.S. companies increase their overseas sales, manage risk and accelerate cash flow. It also provides its customers with the local market knowledge through the HSBC network covering 79 countries and territories. As trade finance continues to become less paper-based, Sanghvi’s experience in treasury management will be of value to the business.

Back in the eighties, when Wells Fargo decided to shed its international operations, there was a clear need for its customers to access global transaction facilities—considering that the bank was one of the largest middle markets and corporate banking entities. What started as a corresponding relationship with HSBC then matured into a joint venture, where Wells Fargo owns 60 percent. In 2005, the JV will be 10 years old. “The far-reaching decisions were made in how this joint venture could work in a non-bureaucratic way, and focus on delivering specific solutions to customers that rested on a seamless transaction between the two banks,” says Sanghvi. “We—through HSBC—offer some of the most unique credit services. For example, when customers receive large letters of credits, most banks come up against the country’s risk limits—how much you can lend against a country’s credit worthiness. Since HSBC has a forefeiaiting desk, where it buys and sells these LCs in the open market in other countries where it has a presence. This allows us to tale a lot more exposure,” the Trade Bank CEO comments. Most of the Trade Bank customers are able to conduct their import and export transaction documents through the bank’s online portal systems, which is in turn integrated with Wells Fargo’s industry leading the treasury management systems. “We are in an interesting situation, where we are still a small 200-member team, entrepreneurial and growing, and yet can deliver sophisticated financial solutions and be the largest service provider with the support of these two giant partners,” says Sanghvi.

If you have more query about magazine please send mail to

May 12	April 12	March 12	Feb 12