Despite announcements from Wells Fargo that the bank will be considering external candidates for CEO only, some inside the company are pushing to simply keep interim CEO Allen Parker in place, Bloomberg reports. [1] According to Bloomberg, directors have asked senior executives for input, and some are lobbying for Parker to stay on as CEO, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“Although I do not know Allen well personally, I do know that he’s very highly regarded both internally and externally, especially in legal and regulatory matters,” former Wells Fargo CEO and Chairman Richard Kovacevich said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Some have noted that Parker might count as an “outsider.” Morningstar Inc. analyst Eric Compton called Parker part of the “new wave.”
“The main thing the market wants is someone who’s going to get the regulators off their backs and also take care of the asset cap pretty quickly,” Compton said.
As Wells Fargo is considering outside candidates only, this eliminates current senior executive Mary Mack, Head of Consumer Banking, from consideration, according to Markets Insider. Among the female executives named as possible candidates [2] by Markets Insider are Marianne Lake, CFO of JPMorgan/Chase; Thasunda Duckett, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking; Barbra Desoer, CEO of Citibank North America; Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup Latin America; and Karren Larrimer, Head of Retail Banking and Chief Customer Officer at PNC Financial Services Group.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett [3] recently weighed in on the choice, suggesting that Wells Fargo should consider candidates from outside of Wall Street.
“They just have to come from someplace (outside Wells) and they shouldn’t come from Wall Street. They probably shouldn’t come from JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs,” Buffett told the Financial Times.
“There are plenty of good people to run it (from the Wall Street banks), but they are automatically going to draw the ire of a significant percentage of the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and that’s just not smart,” Buffett stated.