Wells Fargo & Co. Names Karen Wimbish Head Of Retail Retirement Group

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) today announced that Karen H. Wimbish has been named the new leader of Wells Fargo Retail Retirement, part of Wells Fargo Retirement.

Wimbish, current president of Wells Fargo Advisors’ Latin America Group, will relocate from St. Louis to Charlotte and report to John Papadopulos, president of Wells Fargo Retirement. As head of Retail Retirement, Wimbish will lead a department of 215 team members, all of whom are focused on increasing Wells Fargo’s ability to help retail customers, through multiple channels, plan for and live a comfortable, achievable retirement.

“Karen has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services business and is an expert at managing a business to focus on serving individual customers. For the past five years, she led the brokerage team’s Latin America Group and leveraged her management skills with a unique ability to partner across multiple consistencies. This is an important part of her new role, and I am thrilled to have her on the Wells Fargo Retirement leadership team,” said Papadopulos.

As head of Retail Retirement, Wimbish will work with Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Fargo Wealth Management and Wells Fargo’s Community Bank to implement strategies that engage more current and prospective customers in retirement planning, products and services.

“I am truly excited about the opportunity to help our broad range of customers achieve their retirement dreams through proactive planning. At Wells Fargo, we have many resources to help customers with retirement, and I look forward to helping customers succeed financially,” said Wimbish.

Wimbish began her career at Wells Fargo in 1996 when she joined the predecessor firm Wheat First Securities LLC in Richmond, Va., where she was head of Relationship Management for a division of the firm called Mentor Investment Advisors, which became Evergreen Investments. She then became the division’s chief operating officer and later was chief operating officer of the Independent Brokerage Group of Wachovia Securities. In 2001, Wimbish became chief operating officer of Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network and in 2005 she became president of the Latin America Group.