Elizabeth A. Duke resigns as Chair of Wells Fargo’s Board
Charles H. Noski will serve as Chair of the Wells Fargo Board.
Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) today announced changes at the top, as Elizabeth A. Duke has resigned as Chair and a member of Wells Fargo’s Board of Directors. Wells Fargo also announced that James H. Quigley has resigned as a member of the Board.
Duke was elected Chair of Wells Fargo’s Board, effective January 2018, and previously served as Vice Chair from October 2016 through December 2017. She served on a number of committees in her time on the Board, including the Finance, Governance and Nominating, and Risk Committees.
Both resignations were effective Sunday, March 8, 2020.
Charles H. Noski will serve as Chair of the Wells Fargo Board. Mr Noski joined the Board in June 2019. He is a retired Vice Chairman and former Chief Financial Officer of Bank of America Corporation.
The announcement about the resignations of Duke and Quigley comes less than a month after an announcement that Wells Fargo & Co. and its subsidiary, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve three separate matters stemming from a long-lasting practice of pressuring employees to meet unrealistic sales goals.
As part of the agreements with the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Central District of California and the Western District of North Carolina, the Justice Department’s Civil Division, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wells Fargo admitted that it collected millions of dollars in fees and interest to which the company was not entitled, harmed the credit ratings of certain customers, and unlawfully misused customers’ sensitive personal information.
Duke and Quigley commented:
“Since we were made aware of the egregious harms suffered by Wells Fargo’s customers, we were and remain fiercely determined to do right by them and to strengthen the bank’s culture and controls. We have made these our top priorities. In addition, we hired new external leadership with the ability to be an effective change-agent, which we found with our CEO, Charlie Scharf. As the markets face increasing volatility, a strong Wells Fargo is needed now more than ever”.
“We believe that our decision will facilitate the bank’s and the new CEO’s ability to turn the page and avoid distraction that could impede the bank’s future progress,” Duke and Quigley added.
