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Lester Owens Joins Wells Fargo as Head of Operations

Wells Fargo & Company has announced that Lester Owens will join the company in the newly created role of Head of Operations, responsible for building a more unified, more integrated approach to Wells Fargo’s business operations functions. Owens, who joins Wells Fargo in late July 2020, will report to Chief Operating Officer Scott Powell and will serve on the company’s Operating Committee.

“Lester is a highly regarded operations executive with more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and a passion for excellence, customer experience, efficiency, and transformation,” said Powell. “While everyone at Wells Fargo shares the responsibility for operational excellence, Lester’s team will enable us to deliver the best experience possible for our customers while driving consistent execution across our business operations functions, including contact center operations, client servicing support, money movements within our businesses, lending operations, and other functions. We will all benefit from having Lester’s deep experience and talent in this critical role.”

Owens joins Wells Fargo from Bank of New York Mellon, where he was Global Head of Operations, responsible for a team of 20,000 employees supporting every stage of the client investment lifecycle, including account creation, trading, clearing and settlement, and asset servicing. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, he spent 10 years at JP Morgan Chase, where he was responsible for Global Wholesale Banking Operations, among other roles. Lester previously led significant operations functions for Deutsche Bank, Citibank, and Bankers Trust. Owens is a graduate of Long Island University and the Fairleigh Dickinson Executive MBA program.

The bank is currently the brink of settling a lawsuit alleging a computer error led the bank to deny loan modifications to some homeowners who later lost their homes to foreclosure. An $18.5 million settlement is awaiting final approval from a district judge, who said Thursday he intends to approve the settlement on a preliminary basis after reviewing the notice to the class action case members, according to Law360.

Tom Goyda, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo, told Law360 Thursday, “It is important to note that we have prevailed on all of these lawsuits that have reached a final decision and have not paid any money directly to a suing city/county or to any private lawyers.”

About Author: Seth Welborn

Seth Welborn is a Harding University graduate with a degree in English and a minor in writing. He is a contributing writer for MReport. An East Texas Native, he has studied abroad in Athens, Greece and works part-time as a photographer.
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