After more than two decades at Wells Fargo & Co., the company’s chairman is stepping down.
The San Francisco-based bank announced today that Dick Kovacevich will give up his chairman post and step down as a director at the end of this year. By early next year, Kovacevich will be fully retired.
He spent 23 year at Wells.
“Kovacevich, who will be 66 next month, had agreed last November to continue as chairman for an interim period to focus primarily on issues related to the challenges facing the financial services industry and to the Wells Fargo-Wachovia merger integration,” the news release said.
Replacing Kovacevich will be Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, who will apparently retain his executive title.
Wells lead director Phil Quiqley praised Kovacevich for his “bold, determined and visionary leadership” and for creating the “ground-breaking vision” at the institution.
“He oversaw the disciplined acquisition of more than 300 financial institutions in virtually every segment of financial services, including, at the time, the most successful merger of two large banks in U.S. history with Norwest Corp.’s acquisition of Wells Fargo & Co. in 1998,” Quigley stated.
