San Francisco, Ca., USA - September 23, 2009, San Francisco, Ca., USA - Wells Fargo & Company announced that chairman Richard M. Kovacevich will step down as chairman and a director at the end of 2009 and retire from the company in early 2010. President and CEO John Stumpf will assume added responsibility as chairman, effective January 1, 2010.
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Mr. Kovacevich was named Chairman for Wells Fargo & Company in April 2001. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo from November 1998 to June 2007. Mr. Kovacevich was named CEO of Norwest Corporation in 1993 and Chairman in 1995 after serving as President and COO since 1989.
Mr. Kovacevich joined Norwest in March, 1986, as Vice Chairman, COO and head of the Banking Group.
Before joining Norwest, he was a group executive and member of the Policy Committee at Citicorp and a division general manager at General Mills.
Mr. Kovacevich is a member of the boards of Cargill, Cisco Systems, Target Corporation, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth.
Mr. Kovacevich graduated from Stanford University where he earned his M.B.A., and his bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering.
Mr. Stumpf joined Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, a subsidiary of the former Norwest Corporation (predecessor of Wells Fargo), in 1982 in loan administration.
Mr. Stumpf was named a vice president in Norwest Bank Minneapolis' loan administration department the following year and held several management positions at Norwest Bank Minneapolis and Norwest Bank Minnesota before being named head of Norwest Bank Arizona in 1989. He was named regional president for Norwest Banks in Colorado/Arizona in 1991.
From 1994 to 1998 as regional president for Norwest Bank Texas Mr. Stumpf led Norwest0s acquisition of 30 Texas banks with total assets of more than $13 billion.
With Norwest0s acquisition of Wells Fargo & Company in 1998, he became head of the Southwestern Banking Group (Arizona, New Mexico and Texas). Two years later Mr. Stumpf became head of the new Western Banking Group (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). ■