Wells Fargo & Company 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.
