James Trankle is a Senior Vice President and Head of CoBank ACB’s Corporate Finance division, including its Large Corporate Agribusiness Banking Group and its Financial Sponsors' Coverage Team. James was promoted to this position in January 2023. The division is responsible for the relationship management of and credit functions for CoBank’s animal protein (beef, pork, poultry, seafood), dairy, crop inputs, rendering, major grains and oilseeds, milling, forest products, food and beverage packaging, building materials, biofuels, and propane, fertilizer and farm supplies, specialty crops (including sugar, grapes, diversified produce including fruits and vegetables, cotton, field beans, rice, citrus, potatoes, cranberries, tree nuts, etc.), beverage and consumer packaged goods (including branded and private label products), food service, convenience store, cold storage, and food distribution customers. The portfolio consists of relationships spanning the United States and Canada and representing nearly $20 billion of direct committed credit, as well as cash management, leasing, export finance, supply chain finance, capital markets, and derivatives services.
Immediately prior to James’ current role, and since joining CoBank in 2019, James led the team within Corporate Agribusiness responsible for relationship management of CoBank’s specialty crop customers, beverage and consumer packaged goods customers, food service customers, convenience store customers, cold storage customers, and food distribution customers.
Prior to joining CoBank, James spent the prior 20 years holding various roles at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. His final position, from 2017 to 2019, was Senior Vice President and Region Head of the Commercial Banking group for the state of Nebraska and Western Iowa. Covering the entire span of industries served by Wells Fargo for customers with revenues from $5 million to $5 billion, James led a team of 29 individuals in offices located in Omaha, Lincoln, and Sioux City. The team’s portfolio consisted of over 500 relationships in industries such as agriculture, agricultural equipment dealers, transportation, financial services, education, engineering, consulting, food processing, beverage distribution, and many others.
From 2010 to 2017, James formed and managed Wells Fargo’s Food & Agribusiness team for the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada. The team’s coverage spanned the 14 northeast-most states and the six eastern-most Canadian provinces. Based in Philadelphia, the team had satellite offices in Charlotte, Chicago, Rochester, Atlanta, and Montreal. Customers spanned the entire breadth of the food and agribusiness complex with significant representation in egg production, seafood, dairy production, dairy processing, chicken and turkey production for meat, pork production, pork processing, grain storage and merchandising, milling, nurseries, greenhouses, and a wide variety of branded and private label consumer packaged goods. Prior to his transition to Nebraska, the customer portfolio had grown to 64 relationships representing over $2 billion in direct credit commitments. During this time, James contributed to Wells Fargo’s securing its commercial branch license in Canada in 2012 and was part of the due diligence team for Wells Fargo’s acquisition of GE Capital in 2016.
In addition to his experience in financial services, James served four years as Treasurer and Chief Risk Officer for Grain Millers, Inc., of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, one of North America’s largest grain processors and (at the time) largest non-fluid dairy product merchandisers. James oversaw the finance department including all bank relationships, insurance, customer credit, commodity risk management (including the development and implementation of a proprietary position reporting system across 3,000 unique commodity types), legal, and corporate contracting. James was a member of the leadership team that oversaw the design and construction of Grain Millers’ $50 million mill expansion in St. Ansgar, Iowa; its development of a co-fired biofuel boiler system in Yorkton, Saskatchewan; and the acquisition of dry corn miller Agricor in Marion, Indiana.
James received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He received his B.A. in Economics and History Magna cum laude from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He has served in various advisory and board roles including the North American Millers’ Association, the National Chicken Council, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board, the Salvation Army, the Omaha Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee, and the Omaha Symphony. James and his family live in Denver, Colorado.