After Eric Idehen won a lottery to receive a green card allowing him to live and work in the United States five years ago, U.S. immigration officials required him to choose the city which he wanted to settle his family. Though he and most other Nigerians regarded America as the “promised land,” he knew nothing about U.S. geography.

“I tell them, ‘I want a quiet city.’” Idehen said. “They say, ‘We don’t know any quiet city. You have to choose one.’”

Living and working at that time in Madrid, Spain, he asked an American friend of his who worked for Principal Financial Group Inc. for advice. “I’m from Iowa, and it’s quiet,” his friend told him.

That’s how Idehen, now a community development officer for Wells Fargo Bank Iowa, came to choose Des Moines. Fluent in eight languages, Idehen is the bank’s point man for connecting with recent immigrants, whether they speak one of five African dialects, Russian, or most likely, Spanish. Having come to the United States less than five years ago and still several months away from eligibility to apply for citizenship, Idehen finds it easy to connect with other immigrants.

The oldest of eight children and raised in a tough neighborhood in a large Nigerian city, Idehen had already beaten the odds to become the first in his family to earn a college degree. The odds of being selected for a green card are about one in 50,000. But the obstacles he would encounter after coming to the United States would seem the most difficult of all.

Though he has a degree in construction management from a Nigerian university and had worked on projects in Kiev and Madrid, no developer would give him a job without experience in the United States. The only job he could get after arriving in Iowa was as a kitchen assistant at Dahl’s grocery store in West Des Moines, mopping floors and washing dishes.

He had been doing that job for about a year when one of his customers, a Wells Fargo manager named Diane Brown, asked a simple question: “How are you doing?” It led to a frank discussion about his work dissatisfaction, and an invitation to interview for a teller position at the bank.

In short order, the West Des Moines branch where Idehen worked as a teller became one of the bank’s busiest offices for Hispanic customers, as word got around among Latinos that a Spanish-speaking teller who understood their culture was available there.

After a year with Wells Fargo, he was promoted to customer service representative and transferred to the Ingersoll Avenue branch. Then in February 2003 he accepted a promotion to personal banker, and was transferred to the Clive branch at 9801 University Ave.

“While there, my clients from (the Ingersoll branch), mostly from the South Side and East Side, would go to Clive instead of here, and some would wait as long as one hour just to make sure I wait on them,” he said. “Part of it was that they were more comfortable working with me, because I understood them.”

Since he was named community development officer five months ago, Idehen has taken a number of steps to reach out to immigrants in Central Iowa.

Working with leaders from the business, faith and non-profit communities, Idehen organized the Wells Fargo Latino Advisory Coalition in Des Moines, as well as in Perry, Marshalltown and Ames, each of which have significant Hispanic populations.

“Its primary aim and objective is to give Wells Fargo feedback as to what we hear from the community on how we do our business,” he said. “What we do well and what we need to do better, and how to serve them better. I give the information back to management, and we work on it. For example, we discovered that (the Army Post Road branch) is beginning to have a large number of Hispanic clients. Today we have two bankers and tellers that speak Spanish and English.”

Currently, Idehen is coordinating Wells Fargo’s role in a coalition of community agencies working to establish the first “Hola Center” to assist Hispanic immigrants in Des Moines. Scheduled to open in July, it will be a one-stop assistance center for newcomers.

Among the services provided, in addition to a mini-bank branch, will be free legal services through the Polk County Bar Association and counseling services through Employee & Family Resources. Also available will be representatives from community organizations such as the Greg Gaul Center, United Way of Central Iowa, the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation and the Annie Casey Foundation.

“We are not thinking about the money side of it; we are thinking about the community development side of this,” Idehen said. “By helping these people, we’re making a difference in their lives. And they are not obligated to bank with us.”

The real payoff, Idehen said, will come in the relationships established with these first-generation Hispanic immigrants, who will begin to pass along a good message about the bank to the second and third generations.

Idehen, who describes himself as a strong Christian, said he believes God has worked to help him achieve his current position so that he can help others. In addition to his work in Des Moines, he is reaching back to Nigeria to establish and fund a small orphanage in an apartment building he owned in his hometown.

“I believe that God uses people as angels,” he said. “If Diane had not given me the opportunity to come to Wells Fargo, they would not have discovered my talents.

Wells Fargo has provided me the opportunity to prove who I am, what I know and what I may achieve.”

In return, Idehen said he’s loyal to Wells Fargo, though he’s received lucrative offers from other financial institutions that have observed his multilingual talents and people skills.

“I tell them, ‘My grass is green right now. You’re telling me about your grass that looks green from the distance, but I’m not sure if it’s that green; it might be yellow in spots.’”