Dive Brief:
- Mary Mack, Wells Fargo’s CEO of consumer and small-business banking, is retiring this summer after a 40-year career with the San Francisco-based lender, the bank announced Thursday.
- Mack will be replaced by Saul Van Beurden, who has served as the bank’s head of technology since 2019. Tracy Kerrins, Wells Fargo’s current head of consumer technology, will succeed Van Beurden, the bank said.
- Mack helped Wells Fargo navigate its 2016 fake-accounts scandal, and has held leadership roles in the $1.9 trillion-asset bank’s consumer banking, brokerage, commercial banking and corporate and investment banking units.
Dive Insight:
“It has been an honor working alongside so many talented people over the course of my career — all focused on helping our customers achieve their financial hopes and dreams,” Mack said in a statement. “The Consumer & Small Business Banking leadership team is incredibly strong and focused on continuing to improve the experiences our customers have with Wells Fargo, which affirms that this is the right time to retire. I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of my journey over the years.”
Mack joined Wells Fargo in 1984. She served as president and head of Wells Fargo Advisors before replacing Carrie Tolstedt as head of the bank’s community-banking division in 2016, just as the firm’s fake-accounts scandal was coming to light.
As the bank embarked on efforts to repair its reputation with consumers, Mack was instrumental in eliminating certain incentives that contributed to the firm’s consumer abuses, such as product sales goals for bankers who sell checking accounts and credit cards, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Following the scandal, she also incorporated “listening tours” with Wells Fargo employees across the U.S., according to the outlet.
Less than two years after taking over Wells Fargo’s community-banking arm, Mack was also put in charge of the firm’s consumer-lending unit.
She led the two divisions until 2020, when the bank, under new CEO Charlie Scharf, split the firm’s three banking units into five.
Under the reorganization, the bank divided its consumer bank into two arms. Consumer lending became a stand-alone division led by Mike Weinbach, while Mack was tasked with leading the firm’s sprawling branch network and small-business unit.
“Mary has spent her entire career at Wells Fargo, which spans nearly four decades,” Scharf said in a statement. “She has led Consumer & Small Business Banking for the past seven years, leading through a significant amount of change, including defining a new path forward for the business. I can think of few Wells Fargo colleagues who have done as much for our company — and who have been as visible in the communities that we serve — over such a long period of time.”
Van Beurden will take over the bank’s consumer and small-business banking division on May 15, the bank said. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Van Beurden was the chief information officer for JPMorgan Chase’s consumer- and community-banking division. He also held senior leadership roles at ING, running operations and technology for the company’s international retail and direct banks.
“Saul is a strong leader, technologist and knows how to run a business, making him the ideal person to lead Consumer & Small Business Banking into the future, building on the strong foundation that Mary has built,” Scharf said. “CSBB’s branch network will continue to be key to the business, but our customers expect us to provide them with increasingly digitized and seamless banking experiences across all channels. Saul understands this deeply and has consistently proven his ability to convert new ideas into new products and services across Wells Fargo.”
