DREW TANZMAN Senior vice president Wells Fargo & Co., San Diego
Drew Tanzman, a 33-year-old senior vice president at Wells Fargo & Co. and head of its newly expanded San Diego region, has just completed the biggest job of his career: integrating the southernmost branches of Great American Bank, which was bought by Wells in 1990.
A former surfer, Mr. Tanzman was in charge of Wells' mortgage banking operation, headquartered in San Diego, when he was tapped to head up the branch integration. He combined Great American's 64 branches with Wells' 26.
He had experience in consolidating offices before his San Diego assignment but on a smaller scale. In 1986, when Wells bought Crocker National Corp., Mr. Tanzman was dispatched to El Segundo, Calif., to a Crocker lending office to combine it with a nearby Wells office.
There, the 28-year-old had to present severance packages to six of Crocker's top eight local officers. About 150 of 350 jobs were lost in the combination.
But his skill in handling these tough situations is a testament to his people skills, colleagues say. "He is a hell of a nice guy and people trust him," said one Wells executive. "He works hard not to alarm people in these situations."
A Los Angeles native, Mr. Tanzman has undergraduate and master's degrees in economics from the University of California at San Diego. He began his career at Wells in 1981 in the management sciences department, doing research and strategic planning.
Mr. Tanzman then worked in consumer credit and was named a vice president in 1984. In 1986, he was appointed manager of the Santa Ana and El Segundo loan centers. In 1987, he was promoted to head the bank's mortgage division and won his senior vice presidency a year later.
