When Rob Oltjen arrived in Des Moines a year ago as president of Bank of America’s Iowa operations, the then-38-year-old’s chief goal was to boost the bank’s visibility and win new customers.

Now, with his first year nearly behind him, Oltjen continues to work toward those objectives. He has spent plenty of time behind the wheel of his car, touring the bank’s 16 branches and getting to know as many managers and employees as possible. He has attempted to visit each at least once every three months, and some that are closer to Des Moines have seen much more of him.

Closer to home, Oltjen has been extending himself outside of the bank, joining the boards of four community organizations in a bid to learn more about Greater Des Moines, meet influential citizens and further immerse himself in the city’s civic fabric.

“We want it all; loans, deposits,” he said. “We’d like to move that needle on our deposit share.”

The bank, which commanded a market share of 1.56 percent as of June 30, 2002 – the latest figures available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is the state’s seventh largest. But its $743 million in deposits are small relative to the state’s two bank giants. In Iowa, Wells Fargo Bank Iowa N.A. and U.S. Bank, the No. 1 and No. 2 banks by deposits, respectively, together account for $10 billion in deposits, making them bigger than the next 19 banks in the state.

One of his biggest aids has been the sheer size of Bank of America nationwide. The bank, which last week agreed to buy Fleetboston for about $48 billion, will become the nation’s second largest behind Citigroup Inc.

To add customers in Iowa, Oltjen believes the Bank of America name must be put in front of as many people as possible. To that end, he is lobbying for new branches – Bank of America calls them “stores” – at the Jordan Creek Town Center and in quickly growing Ankeny. In Iowa, Bank of America has about 170 workers, of which about 110 are based in Des Moines.

Prior to the Fleetboston acquisition, Bank of America had plans to add 550 branches across the U.S. and it isn’t yet clear how the purchase could affect those plans. Bank of America is unlikely to make acquisitions in Iowa, he said. As a result, growth will have to come from the operations that are here. Having a big parent does have its advantages, including giving Oltjen and the Iowa staff access to a wide variety of products.

Among those are estate-planning tools. In December, Bank of America engineered a transaction in which Meredith Investments LP, which is controlled by Meredith family, agreed to sell up to 1 million shares of Meredith stock to the bank. The shares were sold below what was then market price, but the agreement gave the Meredith family a chance to benefit from appreciation in the stock over the next five years. The bank continues to develop new products, Oltjen said.

“I don’t think anyone has anything on us in terms of services,” he said.

Oltjen joined the Young President’s Organization, a statewide group for young leaders. He gained a spot on the board of Variety – the Children’s Charity of Iowa. He also holds board seats on the Des Moines Symphony, the Des Moines Civic Center and the Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates, a program that works to help at-risk children stay in school.

Those roles are sure to add to Oltjen’s presence in Central Iowa and stand to help him in his second job at Bank of America – heading its private bank, which caters to individuals who have $1 million or more in investable assets.

Oltjen came to Des Moines a year ago from Kansas, where he also worked in the private bank He succeeded Frank Spillers, who moved to Bank of America’s Beverly Hills, Calif. office. Oltjen grew up on a farm in Kansas that his family still owns.

He earned a degree in agricultural economics from Kansas State University and began work at Farm Credit Services. He joined what is now Bank of America in 1992 in Kansas. In 1997, he became part of Bank of America’s private bank in Topeka, where he built the loan portfolio from nothing to more than $23 million in two years.

In Central Iowa, he has been working to increase the bank’s reputation with certified public accountants and attorneys, who tend to draw rich clients and are in a position to recommend financial advisors to them. Last month, Bank of America held a luncheon at the Art House, an upscale restaurant on Ingersoll Avenue, to thank some lawyers and CPAs for working with the bank and to help them get to know Bank of America’s local staff better.