Charles W. Scharf is the CEO and President of Wells Fargo & Company. He is also a member of the company's Board of Directors. With over 30 years of leadership experience in the banking and payments industries, Charles is known for driving innovation, operational excellence, and transformative growth in major global financial institutions.
Charles obtained his Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and then earned a Master of Business Administration from New York University. He developed skills and knowledge in business and finance, which opened a significant set of possibilities for a meaningful career in financial services. Those years were formative in his ability to think strategically and lead, as he led global firms through complex challenges.
Charles has gained substantial experience in an executive capacity at Visa, Bank of New York Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. He played a key role in establishing Visa as a leader in digital commerce. At Bank of New York Mellon, Charles’ concentration was around operational risk and innovation. Currently, Charles is CEO of Wells Fargo and an independent director at Microsoft.
Wells Fargo leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) for improving the bank's operations. The organization utilizes smart assistants, AI ethics, generative AI, and AI apps to enhance innovation and simplify complex workflows.
Smart Virtual Assistant: Fargo®, Wells Fargo's smart virtual assistant, enhances banking experience and operational efficiency utilizing Dialogflow, Google's conversational AI platform. It allows the company to provide personalized, well-researched insights to customers.
Ethical AI: An ethical approach to risk-enabled generative AI is used at Wells Fargo for innovation, productivity enhancement, and sustainable growth and is good for the customer, the investor, and the economy.
Wells Fargo’s AI Agents: With Google Cloud, Wells Fargo’s AI Agents enhance customer service and provide actionable data information and insights; empower staff, enhance operational efficiency; and take part in designing smarter, more innovative financial products and solutions.
Charles is recognized as a financial powerhouse with a net worth of at least $131 million. He owns approximately $81 million worth of shares in Visa Inc., 304,643 shares worth over $33 million in BNY Mellon, and more than $15 million in Wells Fargo stocks. Charles has been a visionary thinker, a clever investor, and incredibly adept at nurturing some of the world's leading financial institutions.
Charles W. Scharf has driven growth and innovation across leading financial institutions. He oversaw Visa's digital payment expansion. At Bank of New York Mellon, his focus was on efficiency and risk management. As the CEO of Wells Fargo, he is leading cultural change and operational transformation to repair trust, increase compliance, and restore stability, receiving positive public attention for improvements on major corporate turnaround activities.
Charles has encountered his own controversies, especially around diversity and inclusion. In 2020, he said Wells Fargo could not meet its diversity goals due to a "limited pool of Black talent," causing outrage from employees and advocates for civil rights. He later apologized and said the comment had been "insensitive" and represented his "own unconscious bias."
In addition, in 2024, Wells Fargo was involved in a lawsuit about conducting "sham interviews" with minority applicants. This brought legitimacy into question and was also cynical of Wells Fargo's diversity initiatives.