Pierz ... St. Cloud ... San Francisco

A profile of John Stumpf: From farm boy to Wells Fargo executive!
Pierz ... St. Cloud ... San Francisco

Ready to catch the next stage


Excerpts:

What Stumpf calls his “story of absolute good fortune” began when he was born the second of what would be 11 children to arrive within 13 years on the Stumpf family farm. There were so many children, he quips, “When the Stumpfs didn’t show up for band practice at school, they cancelled.”

Growing up, the older Stumpf children lived through years of financial hardship on the dairy farm and their parents searched out a way to augment their meager income. The answer came in a contract with the Jack Frost Co. and building a chicken barn to house 15,000 laying hens. That meant added chores for the Stumpf children, said Stumpf’s sister Jessie.

Their mother, a nurse, and father provided the children with the right formula for life. “There was that model of education, of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and going on to find a way to conquer,” Jessie Stumpf said. “There was always an attitude of ‘we will find a way – we won’t sit back and see what’s going to happen.’”

Stumpf: “I remember seeing a poster ... that reminded me how the goal of learning was not necessarily good grades. It was an ad for a flight training school that said, ‘We’re in the business of helping people learn how to fly safely – not just pass the test.’ ”

Comment: I recommend the linked article as a proud Wells Fargo employee! I met John a year ago at a BCP conference in San Francisco!