Company Name: Wells Fargo & Co.

Founders:

· Henry Wells (Co-founder)

· William G. Fargo (Co-founder)

Industry: Financial Services

History:

The origins of the diversified financial services company goes back all the way to 1852 when the founders of American Express, William Fargo and Henry Wells, formed Wells, Fargo & Company with the aim of providing express and banking services to the state of California.

In 1918, during World War I, the U.S. government nationalized the franchise of Wells Fargo into the American Railway Express Agency. The government leaves only the bank and takes control over everything else. The bank then begins to rebuild and specialize on commercial markets.

In 1923, the Union Trust Company and Wells Fargo Nevada fused to establish the Wells Fargo Bank and Union Trust Company.

In 1954, the company shortened its name to simply Wells Fargo Bank.

Six years later, the company merged with American Trust Company to establish the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company. Two years later, it again shortened the label to Wells Fargo Bank.

By 1968, the company became Wells Fargo, Bank, N.A. when it converted to a federal banking charter. A year later, Wells Fargo & Company was formed, with Wells Fargo Bank as the main subsidiary.

In the succeeding years, Wells Fargo managed to make a series of acquisitions, including:

· Crocker National Corporation (1986)

· The personal trust enterprise of Bank of America (1987)

· Barclays Bank of California (1988)

· First Interstate (1996)

The company also became the pioneering financial services group to provide Internet banking in 1995. In 1998, Norwest acquired Wells Fargo for $31.7 billion. The Wells Fargo label was adopted to take advantage of the popular Wells Fargo name. The company then relocated its headquarters to San Francisco.

The new Wells Fargo acquired First Security Corporation and CIT Construction in 2000 and 2007 respectively.

Currently, Wells Fargo is the 5^th biggest bank in the U.S. It is the 9^th largest in the world basing on market cap. As of 2007, it had 200,000 employees and $39.390 billion in revenue.

Leadership:

· Richard M. Kovacevich – Chairman

· John G. Stumpf – President, CEO, and Director

· Howard I. Atkins – SEVP and CFO