The chairman of Wells Fargo will resign

The chairman of Wells Fargo agreed last year to help the company through the financial crisis, now Dick Kovacevich will be stepping down from the job as he sees that the financial crisis is over, I suppose. After 23 years of being with the company, he was chosen to lead it through the worst crisis that had happened to the financial markets since he had been there.

The position was only meant to be temporary and he knew that he wanted to retire eventually. He wanted to help the company get back on its feet as well as lead it through the acquisition of Wachovia.

On January 1, 2010 John Stumpf, current CEO of the company, will replace him as the chairman. Stumpf has been with Wells Fargo for 27 years and has been the CEO since June 27, 2007. His career started when he joined Norwest Corporation in 1982. Since that time Wells Fargo has swallowed many smaller banks including Stumpf’s Norwest bank. He is also currently on the board of directors for Visa international and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Visa in the United States. Like our eBay CEO friend Meg Whitman, he is also an outspoken supporter of the Republican party.

Wells Fargo is one of the banks that accepted TARP money from the government. It got $25 billion. It is also one of the banks that, when put under the government stress tests against bailed out banks, it was told that it would have to raise more capital before it could begin to pay back the loans. It sold stock to raise nearly $9 billion but the additional $5 billion will come from earnings according to the company.