Wells Fargo & Company announced the appointment of six new Corporate Risk leaders as part of its enhanced Risk model to further strengthen the independent oversight of all risk-taking activities and a more comprehensive view of risk across the company. In addition, the company announced that Mike Roemer, the current Chief Compliance Officer, has decided to leave Wells Fargo following a transition period.

“Our new model will strengthen our centralized, independent risk management program, provide greater consistency in how we manage risk across our businesses, and better position us for the future,” said Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Mandy Norton.

The model consists of five line-of-business CROs, along with other teams aligned by risk type, each reporting to Norton. The new leaders, who will all report to Norton, are:

  • Paula Dominick, who will join Wells Fargo as Chief Compliance Officer in October. Dominick was most recently Chief Compliance Officer of Credit Suisse USA and previously held leadership roles at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. In this role, Dominick will be responsible for oversight of all regulatory compliance risks for Wells Fargo.
  • Brian King, who will join Wells Fargo as CRO for Consumer & Small Business Banking in October. King was most recently CRO and Head of Finance for the Consumer Business at Goldman Sachs and previously held risk leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase.
  • Ellen Koebler, who will join Wells Fargo as CRO for Commercial Banking in September. Koebler was previously Deputy CRO at Truist, CRO for SunTrust Banks, and held leadership roles at E*Trade, JPMorgan Chase, First Union, and Shell Oil & Shell Chemical Companies.
  • Prasanna Someshwar, who will join Wells Fargo as CRO for Wealth & Investment Management in October. Someshwar previously held various risk leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, including CRO and Chief Credit Officer for Wealth Management/Private Bank.
  • Jeff Colson, who has been named CRO for Finance, joining the risk team in September following a transition period from his current role. Colson was most recently Head of Capital Management at Wells Fargo, and his successor will be named shortly. Colson joined Wells Fargo in 2015, and he previously held executive financial and risk management positions at Bank of America.
  • Patrick Dillon, who has been named Enterprise Testing & Validation leader, effective immediately. Dillon joined Wells Fargo’s risk organization in 2018 and was previously in compliance leadership roles at PNC Financial Services and Bank of America Merchant Services. In this role, Dillon will lead the team responsible for the development and design of methodologies and standards for review activities across the company and provide strategic leadership of significant enterprise-wide testing programs.

According to Wells Fargo, the new CROs will each provide independent, holistic risk leadership and oversight for their respective business lines and functional areas, creating streamlined interaction with independent risk management and a comprehensive view of risks across each of the businesses. The CROs will work in strong partnership with leaders who will continue to oversee market, credit, operational, compliance, strategic, and model risk holistically across the entire company.

“These new leaders bring impressive experience, diverse insights, and strong leadership skills to their roles,” said Norton. “They will each play an important part on the risk leadership team under our newly enhanced organizational structure as we strengthen our independent risk management function and better position how we manage risk for the future.”

The new leaders were named following the May 2020 announcement of the enhanced Corporate Risk model, which noted that Kevin Reen would join Wells Fargo as CRO of Consumer Lending and that Bill Juliano would join Wells Fargo as chief operational risk officer. A search for the new CRO for Corporate & Investment Banking remains underway.