Wells Fargo & Company has promoted James Trankle to lead its Nebraska commercial lending team. Based in Omaha, he reports to Grant Friesth, Central Division manager for Wells Fargo Middle Marking Banking.

Trankle now oversees Wells Fargo’s local Middle Market Banking operations throughout Nebraska, providing credit, treasury management, and deposit products to mid-market companies with revenues of $20 million and higher. His growing 17-member team of commercial banking experts delivers a localized lending approach, providing more than 80 Wholesale Banking services to some of the area’s largest and most-recognizable companies in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, distribution, and technology, among other industries.

“Local middle-market companies trust James to help them succeed financially,” Friesth said. “He will serve our Nebraska customers and communities with integrity, diligence, and commitment.”

Middle-market companies drive the U.S. economy as an important engine of job creation. More than 200,000 companies — mostly privately held — generate more than $10 trillion in annual revenues. In Nebraska, mid-market companies generate $29 billion in annual revenue and employ 210,000 local residents

Trankle launched his commercial banking career at Wells Fargo in 2001 in its relationship manager development program. He served as a commercial banking financial analyst and relationship manager for Minnesota operations in the  Bloomington, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Greater Minnesota Middle Market Banking offices. In October 2007, Trankle became treasurer and chief risk officer of Grain Millers Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He returned to Wells Fargo in 2010 to lead the eastward expansion of the Food and Agribusiness team. Trankle worked with local Middle Market Banking teams from Virginia northward through the Eastern Canada provinces, providing direct credit and financial consulting for Wells Fargo’s food, agribusiness, and agricultural production clients.

Trankle graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and history. He earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is an associate member of the North American Millers’ Association and a member of the Association for Corporate Growth.

Like Trankle, more than 900 Wells Fargo team members live, work, and support customers in Nebraska. They also volunteered 15,420 hours in 2017.