David Quigg ’94 is enjoying a long, successful career at Wells Fargo, North America’s most extensive financial services network. After rising through the ranks in California, six years ago he moved to St. Paul, where he today serves as a senior vice president, managing 800 employees, $5 billion in assets and more than 40 bank stores. And he still finds time to squeeze in some golf—Minnesota weather permitting.

What drives you in your work?

I’m passionate about helping our Wells Fargo team members learn and grow in their jobs, and develop their careers within our company. As a senior vice president, I lead 800 associates and focus on helping them achieve Wells Fargo’s vision—to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. I’m also committed to promoting diversity as a business strategy that can help increase Wells Fargo’s success.

Where is your career headed?

During my 22-year career at Wells Fargo, I have managed the business side and provided strategic support through various finance positions. With that experience and the organization’s continued expansion, I expect to take advantage of many opportunities to grow my management career. My greatest interest is in finding a role where I can impact the most team members as possible and help fulfill our vision.

How has your UC Davis MBA experience helped shape your success?

My involvement with many group projects prepared me in several ways for success at Wells Fargo, which is a large company (280,000+ employees). Certainly the strategic skills are important, and the experiences with matrix management helped prepare me to work in a large corporate setting. As a coast-to-coast company where we frequently work “virtually,” the skills of influencing and partnering that I learned are invaluable.

What is the most amazing or interesting thing that’s happened to you since graduating?

Finding out that winter weather can be fun! Wells Fargo sponsors an outdoor ice rink in downtown St. Paul each winter, and hundreds of people come to enjoy skating, even in very cold temperatures. We also sponsor the Minnesota Wild pro hockey team and the annual winter carnival. I’ve found that one can not only survive winter—we can enjoy it, too!

Your favorite GSM memory?

The first thing that comes to mind is the Thursday night socials at the pub. Those memories really reflect the relationships and friendships that we built during the program. While people came from different backgrounds with different skills and experiences, we came together as teams to learn and grow. One favorite project was for the Strategic Planning and Consulting course, when we worked with the owner of 40 Round Table Pizza franchises. I ate more pizza than I did in any other of my college years!

What’s new in your family/personal life?

Since moving to Minnesota I’ve gotten happily married and became a father. Life is good!  Despite only being able to golf six months out of the year, I am doing best to keep my game sharp for the next GSM tournament I get a chance to play in.

How do you support and participate in the GSM now?

Living 2,000 miles away makes it difficult to keep up personally, yet there are a few program alumni in the Twin Cities who I know. We had a fun opportunity last year when Professor David Woodruff was here for a conference at the University of Minnesota. Several of us had lunch with him and caught up on our activities since graduation.

I’m also a regular reader of the monthly alumni e-newsletter and, of course, contribute each year to GSM’s Annual Fund, as all good alums should!