Richard Kovacevich

Early life and education

A native of Tacoma, Washington, he grew up in Enumclaw, Washington, a lumber town about 30 miles southeast of Seattle, where his father worked in the sawmill. His parents are Joseph and Dorothy Kovacevich. At Stanford University he received BS and MS degrees in industrial engineering, followed by an MBA degree from Stanford Business School in 1967.

Citicorp

Early in his corporate career he was a planning and division general manager with General Mills before joining Citicorp. At Citicorp he was made head of regional retail banking. Kovacevich was told by his team that Citibank had 30% market share but was losing 108 million dollars a year. Probing deeper, Kovacevich realized that they meant that Citibank had 30% checking account market share (in other words, 30 percent of all people who lived in the Citibank regions had a checking account with Citibank). In reality, Citibank only had 6% market share of deposits (the vast majority of money being in Savings and Loans, Credit Unions, and other institutions). Kovacevich expanded Citibank aggressively into other areas such as mortgages.

Norwest

He then joined Norwest Bank as chief operating officer and head of the retail banking group in March 1986. At Norwest, Kovacevich confronted a similar situation. Norwest was mostly centered in Minnesota and Iowa at the time, with a relatively small population in both states. Kovacevich realized the only way he could keep growing the company would be to expand beyond banking services, into investment and insurance services as well. Kovacevich theorized that eventually it would be impossible for any bank to continuously grow if it did not do this.

Kovacevich instituted the new strategies while serving as president of Norwest from 1989, chief executive officer from 1993, and chairman from 1995. The higher revenues, relative to stable fixed costs which this method produced allowed Norwest to purchase many other banks, culminating with the 1998 purchase of Wells Fargo. Although Norwest was the nominal survivor, the merged company retained the better-known Wells Fargo name. After the merger, he was given the positions of president and CEO of Wells Fargo. In 2001 Kovacevich was elected chairman as well.

Legacy and beliefs

Kovacevich is responsible for many trends currently found in the financial services industry:

Kovacevich believes that Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance should be privatized, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have no government backing in the event of a failure (quite the opposite of the course actually pursued by the United States Congress and the White House when the two lenders became insolvent in September 2008). He has also been very vocal against the expensing of stock options, and has twice disobeyed shareholder requests to do so.

Wells Fargo

He relinquished the presidency of Wells Fargo to John Stumpf in August 2005. On June 27, 2007, the board of directors elected Stumpf CEO, with Kovacevich retaining the chairmanship.

In September 2009 Wells Fargo announced Kovacevich would step down as chairman and a director at the end of 2009 and retire from the company in early 2010 after 23 years with the company.

Other positions

Besides Wells Fargo, Kovacevich is a director of Cargill, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., and formerly Target Corporation. He is also vice president of the board of governors of the San Francisco Symphony, vice chairman of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a member of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Commission on Jobs and Economic Growth, the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee, and the Financial Services Roundtable.

Hudson Executive Capital

In June 2015, it was announced that Kovacevich is a CEO partner invested in Hudson Executive Capital, LP, an activist hedge fund.

Theranos

Since 2013, Kovacevich has been on the board of advisors of heavily criticized Theranos, a privately-held health, technology and laboratory services company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and is also an investor in the company. Theranos owner has been banned by the Federal government from owning a lab for two years, a decision the company has appealed. Theranos corporate governance practices have been criticized.

Personal life

Kovacevich is married to Mary Jo and is the father of three children.

In the political realm, he has been a member of Pete Coors for Senate, Romney for President, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the New Leadership for America Political Action Committee.