How I Made It: Antonio Zate
The job: Senior vice president in charge of Wells Fargo Bank’s small business lending operation in the Los Angeles area at a time when small firms are struggling with the economic downturn.
The passion: To reach out to small business owners and help them, whether they’re just starting out, ready to grow or trying to survive tough times. “What drives me is my personal passion for … helping others achieve their financial dreams.”
Hard times: How tough is it to get a loan at Wells Fargo? Zate and the bank won’t say. By most accounts, Wells Fargo lends more money to small businesses than any other financial institution, both locally and nationwide. But the economic downturn has made it nearly impossible for many small businesses to get loans — even those backed by the Small Business Administration, Zate said. Loans are generally not available to businesses that are unprofitable or have a credit score of less than 640.
Coping with loan denials: It’s stressful, frustrating, even painful, Zate said, for him and his team to turn away an applicant. “We feel it every day, because we are in the field, working with people.… Every day we meet people and the business is their family. They’ve run it well for 25 years, and now they aren’t in a position to get the help they really want or need. It’s personally difficult not to be able to help them when they’re in that situation.”
Banker popularity: Zate says he knows banks and bankers are not very popular these days. “People think bankers are just this institution with money. But we are your neighbors,” he said. The turmoil in the economy “affects us too.”
The inspiration: Zate was born in the Philippines and moved to the United States with his family in 1969, when he was a year old. He grew up in Rowland Heights, where two influences set him on his way: One, he realizes now, was his father. An accountant who later became a banker and then the owner of a trucking company, Zate’s father imparted a respect for numbers and an awareness of the struggles of small businesses. At the same time, Antonio Zate spent much of his childhood feeling different from the other kids. They teased him because of his ethnicity and his accent. But as an adult, Zate said, he is able to succeed in the world of small business finance because the experience forced him to learn how to communicate well with all sorts of people.
The career path: Zate studied accounting and economics at the University of Redlands. He worked as an accountant and an investment banker until a college buddy got him into small-business lending. He loved the work because it put a human face on the numbers. Zate joined Wells Fargo Bank in 1994 as a loan officer and manager in the Inland Empire and the San Fernando Valley, and left to do similar work at finance company GE Capital. He returned to Wells Fargo in 2008, and within a year, the bank took the top position among Small Business Administration lenders in the area.
What he’s learned: He’s a numbers guy who succeeded by also being a people person. It takes both, he says, to help businesses succeed and figure out what their financial needs are.
Hiring philosophy: To work for Zate, an applicant needs to understand the accounting side but also must be a good communicator and share Zate’s drive for working with small businesses.
Personal: Zate is married to his childhood sweetheart, Melinda, and has two children, Alexi, 13, and Noah, 10. He loves sports, and coaches both Little League and girls softball in Sierra Madre, where the family lives. The 41-year-old credits the strong women in his life — his mother, Avelina, his sisters and his wife — with inspiring him to work hard.
Words of wisdom: Businesses stuck in the credit crunch should investigate loans backed by the Small Business Administration to see if they qualify. Zate advises business owners to talk to knowledgeable experts in the marketplace and seek help repositioning their firms to survive. “It’s hard,” he said. “Having financial success is hard. And you’re going to need help to get there.”
