BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR: MARK OMAN

By Michael Lovell

In late June of last year, more than 2,000 people stood in a massive line at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc.’s West Des Moines campus, hoping for a shot at one of the 1,300 jobs the lender had said it planned to create.

People from every walk of life flocked to the job fair, drawn by the prospect of entry-level and middle-management jobs and fearful of an economy that, at the time, was sputtering and shedding jobs. The line stretched around the company’s huge suburban headquarters. At one point, Wells Fargo officials were processing as many as 200 resumes an hour, and making some hires on the spot. It was likely the biggest job fair for a single employer in Central Iowa’s history.

Inside Wells Fargo Home Mortgage’s headquarters, the scene was, by some accounts, just as crowded. Interest rates at the time were the lowest since John F. Kennedy was president, and Americans were buying homes and refinancing existing mortgagesin record volume.

The new hires were to help process the flood of applications for home and consumer loans that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and its corporate parent, Wells Fargo Home & Consumer Finance Group, were receiving. The company’s Home Mortgage building, which had been completed just a few years ago, was bursting at the seams, unable to handle the number of employees Wells Fargo needed to manage its growth. Work was scattered among a half-dozen buildings the company had leased throughout Greater Des Moines. In Central Iowa, the company had added roughly 1,000 workers in the past year.

Plans were made for a massive new building. At nearly 1 million square feet, it would be among the biggest office buildings in the state. In downtown Des Moines, home to Wells Fargo Financial, which opened a new office building in 2002, the workload was similarly heavy. Plans were made late last year for a third downtown building for Wells Fargo Financial.

That Wells Fargo Home & Consumer Finance Group, which includes Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Financial and Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Group, finds itself in a position to hire so many and make plans for two new structures in Central Iowa is the culmination of a near 20-year effort by Mark Oman and his management team.

Indeed, that Wells Fargo selected Iowa as the site for its new $120 million Home Mortgage building, which was the subject of a bidding war between communities around the country, is likely a testament to Oman’s dedication to the Hawkeye State.

After joining what was then Norwest Mortgage Inc. in 1985 and rising to become its president and chief executive in 1989, Oman laid the groundwork that ultimately turned the division into a powerhouse. Today, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is nation’s largest mortgage lender, handling the financing for one out of every eight homes purchased in the United States.

“I can tell you that without question what he [Oman] has accomplished is huge,” said Steven Chapman, head of West Des Moines-based ITA Group, an incentive marketing company. “It’s beyond what people even begin to understand. What he has built Home Mortgage to be as a part of Wells Fargo is incredible.”

Oman, who is now head of Wells Fargo Home & Consumer Finance and an executive vice president at Wells Fargo & Co., continues to push growth.

Last week, Wells Fargo & Co., the nation’s No. 4 financial services company, said its net income in the fourth quarter reached $1.6 billion, up 10 percent from the $1.5 billion it earned a year ago. The company doesn’t break out results of its Home Mortgage division in its quarterly results, but its said that Wells Fargo Financial accounted for $119 million of its profits, up 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2002.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage handled $71 billion in mortgage refinancings in the fourth quarter and originated $470 billion in mortgage loans in 2003, eclipsing its prior record of $333 billion set in 2002.

The mortgage business is notoriously cyclical, and there are signs it is slowing as interest rates creep upward. To counter that, Oman is working to boost employee performance and increase flexibility in staffing levels by introducing a commissioned sales force and using temporary and contract workers.

“I just marvel at what he has accomplished,” said H. Lynn Horak, chairman and chief executive of Wells Fargo Bank Iowa, which like Wells Fargo Home & Consumer Finance is part of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. “I told Dick Kovacevich [Wells Fargo chairman and chief executive] that as far as I am concerned, Mark is the executive of the year at Wells Fargo.”

Oman’s involvement in Central Iowa isn’t limited to his job. A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Oman now sits on the board of the school’s foundation. He is also a board member of the Iowa Golf Charities and he is in line to become chairman of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Central Iowa’s main engine for economic development, in 2006.

For his accomplishments in the business world, his past and expected service to helping improve the quality of life in Greater Des Moines and his dedication to the community, the Des Moines Business Record has named Oman its 2003 Business Leader of the Year.

Area business people who know him say Oman has a reputation for being a smart leader who doesn’t let life get ahead of his dedication to his family. Oman and his wife, Jill, have two children.

“He’s a quiet soul who puts family first,” said Bill Knapp, who founded area real estate giants Knapp Properties Inc. and Iowa Realty Co. and is Oman’s neighbor. “Mark is one of the best family men that I’ve ever known or been around. I sold him this piece of ground and he built a treehouse on it for his son. Sometimes I wonder if that treehouse isn’t more for him.”

Though Oman, a native Iowan who was born and raised in Waterloo, openly loves Central Iowa, there is a chance that his career could propel him outside the state. Oman, 49, is 10 years younger than Kovacevich.

“Mark has done an unbelievable job of leading this company to record performance,” Horak said. “If you have that kind of track record, that puts you on a platform where people have to consider you for whatever comes up.”

NON-PROFIT LEADER OF THE YEAR: KENNETH QUINN

By Joe Gardyasz

Each year, the World Food Prize Foundation invites the president of the United States to its laureate ceremony in Des Moines.

Though no president has yet attended, it’s just a matter of time before one does, said Kenneth Quinn, the foundation’s president.

In his past three years with the Des Moines-based organization, the former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia has been on a continual crusade to increase the stature of the prize to the point where it is considered “the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.”

“It’s to recognize and inspire,” Quinn said of the prize, which was founded in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug. Carrying a $250,000 cash award, the prize honors each year an individual who has significantly contributed to the quality, quantity or availability of the world’s food supply. In the early 1990s the foundation’s financial future was secured with a $15 million endowment by Des Moines businessman John Ruan.

Awarded each October to celebrate World Food Day, “it’s to encourage people to transcend what is now now available, and achieve breakthrough discoveries,” Quinn said. Through its Global Youth Institute, the foundation also encourages students to step up to lead the next “green revolution.”

  At the same time the organization is gearing up to transform the building that now houses the central branch of the Des Moines Public Library into a new headquarters and hall of laureates, Quinn is working to add cultural events throughout Iowa.

One of the changes Quinn made in 2000 was to move the venue for the laureate ceremony to the state Capitol, in an effort to have the World Food Prize “presented in a way that equals or surpasses the way the Nobel Prize is presented in Europe,” he said.

The celebration is “clearly a signature event for the city and the state,” said Steven Zumbach, outgoing chairman of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “It’s only a question of how much bigger it becomes. With the generosity of John Ruan and the Ruan family, and the leadership of Ken Quinn, I think the stature of the prize will continue to grow.”

The Partnership showcased the foundation to members of Congress during its annual lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., last year.

“It certainly had a very positive impact, because it was an opportunity for members of the United States Congress to see firsthand the scope and influence of the organization and its impact worldwide, Zumbach said. “That’s a message that’s becoming better understood, but it’s not well understood.”

Last year, more than 200 Iowa communities hosted cultural events tied to the World Food Prize Symposium. This year, Quinn hopes an even wider array of events will be held.

“Our goal is to have the symposium be the most significant observance of World Food Day,” he said. “We’re competing against events being done in Rome and New York, but last October we had more (persons representing) lifesaving achievement gathered here than anywhere in the world, without a doubt.”

The events also help Iowa send a message to the rest of the world about the state’s commitment to food production technology and the biosciences, said Mary Lawyer, chief of staff for the Iowa Department of Economic Development. State funding to the foundation has increased from $250,000 in fiscal years 2000 and 2001 to $285,000 during the past two fiscal years.

“It’s been an ever-increasing commitment, which I think shows how serious we are about the World Food Prize and what a benefit it is to the state,” she said. “It’s a great celebration of feeding the world.”

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR:  DES MOINES’ EAST VILLAGE

By Beth Dalbey

The East Village grew up in 2003. Its stakeholders set aside battles that Des Moines City Councilman Archie Brooks once termed petty as business owners carved out an identity for the area, which is considered one of the city’s most eclectic. Now, in the place of bickering among disparate interests is deliberation on a more immediate problem: “Finding space for all the people that are interested in locating here,” said Brooks, one of the early champions of a plan to spruce up the east entrance to the Des Moines’ downtown.

Heavy equipment used in a streetscape project that also returned East Locust Street to two-way traffic was cleared away last year to reveal a unique area of the city that no other Des Moines commercial district can match, said Deputy City Manager Rick Clark, who oversees the city’s economic development efforts. Within five years, Clark predicts, property in the East Village will be some of “the hottest real estate in the state of Iowa.”

City investments of around $7 million sparked a renaissance in the once-neglected neighborhood that sits in the shadow of the handsomely restored Iowa Capitol building. The just-completed streetscape project encourages leisurely browsing through furniture and art galleries, trendy restaurants and retail shops with an off-the-beaten-path selection of goods. The planned Principal Riverwalk and special zoning classifications to further spur development are expected to complement existing public improvements.

Clark said the city investment “primed the pump” for investors who initially displayed some trepidation developing downtown property on the east side of the Des Moines River, but he also credits “intangible momentum” for fueling growth of the district. The East Village is one of the city’s highest economic development priorities.

Early projects such as the $1.4 million renovation of the Teachout Building in 1999, recent entries into the East Village by retailers such as Sticks Inc. that draw both loyal and curious customers to the area, and plans for up to 250 housing units show an exciting private-sector response to the city’s investments, Clark said. Also discovering the East Village are employers such as GCommerce Inc., the New York software developer lured to Des Moines by the Grow Iowa Values Fund. The company recently signed a 5 1/2-year lease for office space at 601 E. Locust St., during which time it plans to create more than 150 new jobs with an average annual salary of more than $50,000.

The progress in the East Village can’t be measured by numbers alone. Brooks helped bring the divergent interests of Historic East Village Inc., the East Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, the Greater East Des Moines Business Association and the East Des Moines Development Corp. together into one group, the East Side Alliance, whose executive officers meet once or twice a month to discuss projects and make recommendations to city officials, Brooks said. Twice turned down for Main Street Iowa funding, the group crafted its own development plan, building on the myriad ideas of its members.

The city is beginning to realize a return on its investment, Clark said. “It is an environment a lot of people are interested in, which is what you hope happens,” he said. “It shows signs of the market catching up.”

NEW BUSINESS LEADERS OF THE YEAR: SCHLARMANN AND KIERNAN

By Erin Kiley

More than two years ago, Mayor Preston Daniels and other city officials announced that they wanted to build a year-round market at the corner of Fourth Street and Court Avenue, with the Downtown Community Alliance leading the charge. Despite the Alliance’s efforts, that parcel of land is still empty. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs Michael Kiernan and David Schlarmann decided to create an indoor farmers market on their own.

They found a promising location, investors and vendors, and on Sept. 26, they opened the Metro Market, a project they say cost $1.5 million to build, including the parking lot.

“We didn’t take a developer’s fee, and we decided not to pay ourselves salaries for at least the first two years,” said Kiernan, 28, who runs his own public relations company. “If you’re going to buy some expensive dirt [like the land on Court Avenue], if you’re going to take a developer’s fee, which is 10 to 15 percent of the total ticket price, and if you want to hire people with high salaries right away, you would need public financing.”

Instead, they found an affordable building that had belonged to M & M Sales Co., at 2002 Woodland Ave., near their homes in Sherman Hill. They did all of the demolition themselves, tearing out ceilings, ripping out rugs and polishing the concrete floors. They co-managed the development, hiring an independent project manager instead of a more costly general contractor.

“We’ve put in a lot of sweat equity to make this place affordable to vendors,” said Schlarmann, 35, a business analyst manager for Principal Financial Group Inc.’s Principal Global Investors. He says the Market’s new eBay Auction House operation also subsidizes the venture. Here’s how the Auction House works: first, Schlarman and Kiernan buy people’s estates. Then some of the items are sold garage-sale style, others are auctioned off locally and special-interest goods are offered at www.ebayliveauctions.com.

Schlarmann first got the idea for the Metro Market several years ago, inspired by the indoor markets he and his wife had seen while visiting family on the East Coast. He created a business plan and later asked Kiernan to do his public relations work. Eventually, Kiernan became so involved that they decided to become 50-50 partners in the venture.

When Schlarmann and Kiernan talk about the Metro Market, the conversation is fast and animated. They often finish each other’s sentences.

“It’s disgusting, isn’t it?” Kiernan said. “We’re like an old married couple. We spend more time together than with our spouses. You can look at a business partnership like a marriage. You have different strengths and different weaknesses. You learn to compromise and find a common ground.

“A lot of people said a 50-50 partnership wouldn’t work, that someone has to have 51 percent to break stalemates. Well, in a stalemate, someone is being completely unreasonable, and if someone is being completely unreasonable in a marriage, you’re going to end up with a divorce.”

Each weekend, the Metro Market is bustling with customers. They sip coffee and listen to live music in the coffeehouse/art gallery. Families stroll the aisles sampling roasted nuts, Dutch letters and sausage made from animals raised on Iowa farms. Customers try on jewelry and examine crafts. And they buy Iowa products.

Though Schlarmann and Kiernan initially had trouble selling vendors on the idea of an indoor farmers market, they now have more than 90 percent of their stalls leased.