What business lines and geography do you serve in the L.A. area?

I lead a team of more than 5,000 community bank team members in the greater Los Angeles region, which includes Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and the Coachella Valley.

How much time do you spend traveling for the job, including visiting branch offices and seeing clients?

I spend about a third of my time visiting with team members, customers and our non-profit community partners.

What’s something about the L.A. business community you didn’t realize before taking this job?

Southern California has always had a reputation as having a diverse business community, so when I moved to Los Angeles, it was great to see the depth of that diversity.

How do you differentiate your bank from both locally based and other national banks with a presence in this city?

At Wells Fargo we’re a community-based, diversified financial services company. We are “in and of” every community in which we do business, whether it is Los Angeles, Compton or Beverly Hills.

What’s the best part about working for a big bank rather than a smaller one?

Since we are local and national at the same time, we say that we want to outlocal the nationals and outnational the locals. This means we look like a national bank but behave like a smaller bank. It means the customer can know their local tellers by name, and that teller can refer the customer to a global world of financial products and services.

And the worst part?

In recent times, there has been a negative perception to working at a large bank.

What’s an area of your business you’d like to grow?

One particular area is with our small-business customers. We believe that small businesses are the engines that will help our economy grow. Additionally, we are looking to continue to invest and grow our distribution to better serve our customers, from furthering our technological capabilities to increasing the number of stores. In fact, in 2015 we plan to open six to eight new stores in Los Angeles.

It’s been more than six years since the financial crisis hit. How well do you think your industry has learned the pertinent lessons from that catastrophe? What are those lessons?

The lessons are ones that have been the hallmark and guiding light of the way Wells Fargo has conducted business for more than 163 years. That is to say, our vision and strong core values guide our everyday decision-making.

What’s the best advice you ever got?

The best advice I’ve received is to make sure you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and to trust their knowledge and expertise.

What’s your favorite restaurant for business meetings?

There are so many great restaurants in Los Angeles that it’s hard to pick one. I often will try to pick a restaurant that is a customer of ours. After all, they trust us with their business; I think it is only right that we trust them with ours.

Lakers, Clippers or neither?

Go Kings Go!

David DiCristofaro, 45

Title: President, Greater Los Angeles

Bank: Wells Fargo

Rank, Local Deposit Market Share: 2, 15 percent

Residence: Pasadena

Family: I have a large family that resides in New York, where I was raised.

Activities: Hiking, sports, theater and other cultural activities

Years in L.A. Area: 12