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John Stumpf requested Richard M. Kovacevich to continue as chairman

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:November 4, 2008

Wells Fargo & Company’s (NYSE:WFC) Board of Directors, with the recommendation of CEO John Stumpf, requested that Chairman Dick Kovacevich, who turned 65 last week, continue as chairman for an interim period and Kovacevich agreed. To make this possible, the Board has voted to grant an exception to the Company’s mandatory retirement age of 65 for senior executives.

Kovacevich will focus primarily on helping President and CEO John Stumpf (elected CEO in June, 2007) and the company’s senior leaders achieve a successful merger integration of Wells Fargo and Wachovia Corporation. After Kovacevich retires, the Board intends that Stumpf would be given added responsibility as chairman.

In addition, to more effectively manage governance, the Board has elected Philip J. Quigley to the newly-created Board position of Lead Director, beginning January 1, 2009. He is Chairman of the Audit and Examination Committee, a member of the Credit Committee, the Governance and Nominating Committee, and has been a Board member since 1994. As Lead Director, he will approve Board meeting agendas with the Chairman and CEO, chair meetings of non-management and independent directors, call executive sessions of the Board, work with committee chairs to ensure coordinated coverage of Board responsibilities, facilitate communication between the Board and senior management, and be a “sounding board” for the Chairman and CEO. Quigley is the retired chairman, president and CEO of Pacific Telesis Group, San Francisco.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $622 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through almost 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the U.S., and one of only two banks worldwide, to have the highest credit rating from both Moody’s Investors Service, “Aaa,” and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, “AAA.”

Richard M. Kovacevich
Chairman
Wells Fargo & Company

Dick 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. He was named CEO of Norwest Corporation in 1993 and Chairman in 1995 after serving as President and COO since 1989. He 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.

He is a member of:

– The Board of Directors of Cargill, Inc.
– The Board of Directors of Cisco Systems, Inc.
– The Board of Directors of Target Corporation
– Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth
– The Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony, Vice President and member
– The Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Vice Chairman and member

He graduated from Stanford University where he earned his M.B.A., and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering.

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