Wells Fargo announced that 20-year banking veteran Lora Powers has been promoted to its Chicago Middle Market Banking leadership team as a senior vice president and regional manager. She succeeds longtime market leader Doug Banzuly, who accepted a Midwest leadership role with the company’s Business Banking Group.

Powers now leads a local team of a dozen commercial banking experts who provide credit, treasury management, and deposit products to mid-market companies with revenues of $20 million and higher. The group delivers a localized lending approach to some of Chicagoland’s largest and most-recognizable companies in food and beverage, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, distribution, and technology.

“Lora has a long history of building trust and helping local middle market companies succeed,” said Chris Nay, Midwest Division manager for Wells Fargo Middle Market Banking. “Her expertise, integrity, and diligence will ensure that the momentum Doug has built serving Chicago businesses over the past decade continues.”

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. Illinois is a growing Wells Fargo commercial lending market, because the state is home to more than 6,500 middle market businesses that generate nearly 20 percent of all business revenue, according to the National Center for the Middle Market. Wells Fargo – which has provided local commercial banking expertise and lending in Chicago since 2000 – also has Illinois commercial lending offices in Naperville, Highland Park, and Peoria.

Based at Wells Fargo’s South Wacker Drive hub in Chicago, Powers brings two decades of middle market banking and relationship management experience to the role. She joined Wells Fargo in 2009 and spent nine years as a senior relationship manager in the Chicago market. Previously, she served middle market customers for more than 10 years at American National Bank, Old Kent Bank, and LaSalle Bank. Powers earned a bachelor’s degree in management with a concentration in finance from Purdue University. A local resident, she is a member of the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls Leader Council.

Powers is among nearly 5,000 Wells Fargo employees who live, work, and support customers and communities in Illinois. In 2017, local employees volunteered more than 25,000 hours and donated nearly $1.5 million in communities statewide. Wells Fargo donated nearly more than $4 million to Illinois nonprofits and schools that same year, including more than $1.5 million for community development, financial literacy, housing, and small business projects.