After graduating and receiving several job offers, Rhodes landed a position as an analyst at Lehman Brothers, prompting him and his wife April—who had been accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology—to move to New York City in January 2000. With Arizona planted firmly in their rear-view mirror, the couple had no plans of returning. And then came 9/11.
“Everything got derailed, so we decided to return to Arizona,” Rhodes explains. “I started the farm back up in 2003 and we’ve been farming ever since.”
The clanging of the opening and closing bells at the New York Stock Exchange still echoed in Rhodes’s ears, however. In 2006, he decided to pursue his MBA at the University of Virginia, and moved back to the East Coast. After completing the program, he was hired by Lehman Brothers again, only to lose his position—along with so many others—a few months later when the company collapsed.
Rhodes ended up staying on Wall Street for a few more years until 2012, when cotton prices started spiking. “We had never seen that before,” he says. “I still had a lease on farmland, so I enlisted some friends to plant cotton while I was still in New York. Let’s just say, we did really well.”
So well that Rhodes—along with April and their two kids—moved back to Arizona for the final time. Today, A&B Farms is farming just under 25,000 acres, making it one of the largest farming operations by acreage in the state.
While his financial expertise may be an advantage in running his business, Rhodes says having a banking partner who’s knowledgeable in agriculture is equally important. Fortunately, he not only has that working with National Bank of Arizona, he also has a banker who has first-hand experience working on a farm.
“My dad ran a farm in Willcox, in southeast Arizona,” says Carrie Morales, vice president, agribusiness relationship manager at National Bank of Arizona. “I grew up on the farm, where I was doing things like bucking hay and driving the tractors out in the fields. Knowing how a farm operates gives me a different perspective and allows me to understand my clients’ financial needs better.”
Rhodes began banking at NB|AZ® just a year ago, but says the experience has been the difference between night and day from his past bank.
“The transition was the most fluid and easiest that I’ve ever been through. I really immediately felt that they’re on my side,” he says. “NB|AZ has a very personal touch and we have had multiple points of contact through the process of becoming a client. We appreciate that they visited the farm and really got to know our business.”
It’s that personal attention—and sound financial knowledge—that Morales is dedicated to delivering. “At the end of the day, my goal is to build my clients up to be in a strong financial position. Being available and accessible, and having an open dialogue about what’s good for the business, makes all the difference,” she says.
