Wells Fargo & Co. and Wachovia Corp. have named two executives to lead their pending integration. According to
Bizjournal.com, Steve Boehm, president of Wachovia's card service group, and Pat Callahan, manager of social responsibility at Wells Fargo, will lead merger planning at their respective banks.
Boehm led Wachovia's effort to begin direct marketing credit cards in 2006, soon after the bank's joint marketing partner MBNA was acquired by its crosstown rival Bank of America Corp. For a decade, Boehm led Wachovia's contact center operation, which is credited with making Wachovia a leader in customer service. He has also been involved in past merger integration efforts.
In a
29-year career with Wells Fargo or its predecessors, Callahan has overseen compliance and risk management, and served as human resources director. During her seven years leading HR, Wells Fargo made more than a dozen acquisitions in which Callahan presumably played an integration role.
As we noted in our special report
Making megabanks in early October, the integration challenges for Wells Fargo and Wachovia -- and other merging financial institutions -- will be steep. The complementary geographic presence and product offerings should help ease the transition for Wells-Wachovia, but re-branding and remodeling branches would be a significant project. Wachovia shareholders must still approve the $11.7 billion deal, which Wells Fargo hopes to close by year's end.
- Suzanne Stevens
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And the winners are...
We hope you keep your Wells Fargo name plate. Your name is based in our history and we would not like to see it go. The Wells Fargo name has great name recognition.
Wishing you great success,
Curtis & Mary Koch