Patricia Callahan
Senior EVP and Chief Administrative Officer, Wells Fargo
Patricia Callahan works on many fronts to shape how Wells Fargo is viewed both by the public and by its own employees. That's a function of her daily duties the extent of what she oversees ranges broadly from advertising and media relations to supplier diversity and talent development but it took on heightened importance for her last year as Wells rolled out new ads focused squarely on reputation.
The meticulously researched campaign achieved what it set out to do, based on Wells' own research. Nearly six in 10 noncustomers who saw the ads said they were more likely to consider Wells. And among customers, more than seven in 10 who saw the ads said they felt more satisfied with Wells as a result.
Legislative outreach also got heightened attention. To help streamline this activity, Callahan last year combined the government relations and social responsibility groups, both of which report to her. She was instrumental in shaping the newly integrated team's response to an array of pressing political issues facing the industry, including too big to fail and the push to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Her combined efforts helped Wells garner more than 12,000 mentions in leading newspapers and magazines in 2012, up 24 percent from the prior year. Of those mentions, 81 percent were positive or neutral, which Wells says leads the industry, as judged by an independent third party.
