A.P. Giannini

A. P. Giannini is one of the twentieth century's great success stories and one of the most influential figures in the modern history of California and the West. From his beginnings selling produce on the San Francisco waterfront in the late 1800s, he went on to transform a one-room bank into the world's largest and wealthiest privately owned financial institutions: Bank of America and the Transamerica Corporation. Ultimately, Giannini's innovations and the competitiveness engendered by his aggressive business style revolutionized banking throughout the country, redefining forever the role of…