Kleber Santos will join Wells Fargo on Nov. 9 as head of the newly created diverse segments, representation and inclusion group to elevate the company’s internal and external diversity efforts. He will report to CEO Charlie Scharf and serve on the company’s operating committee.
“I look forward to joining Wells Fargo and leveraging my business background and experience to promote and embed a diversity mindset into everything that we do,” Santos said. “This new group will play a critical role in delivering products and services to help our diverse customers and in advancing diversity and inclusion at all levels of the company.”
Santos joined Wells Fargo from Capital One, where he worked for 15 years in a number of senior roles, most recently as president of retail and direct banking, accountable for the division’s revenue, product development and marketing, branches and ATMs, and operations. As a member of Capital One’s executive team, Santos was engaged in diversity efforts, including in the development of products and services and in partnering with community and consumer advocacy groups. Additionally, he helped advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace by enhancing his division’s recruiting efforts to require more diverse candidate pools and interview panels, helping introduce diversity-focused training and retention programs, launching a formal mentoring program, increasing diverse representation on his leadership team, and chairing the Retail and Direct Banking Diversity Council. Santos also served as executive sponsor of Capital One’s Hispanic/Latinx associates and allies employee affinity group.
At Wells Fargo, Santos will be responsible for leading efforts to make the company a place where diversity is reflected at all levels and in every facet of the company’s operations, processes and programs. He will be focused on creating a more diverse and inclusive working environment and partnering with Wells Fargo’s business leaders to deliver products and services specifically designed to meet the needs of diverse customer segments.
“Kleber brings a unique set of leadership and business skills that, combined with his experiences driving diversity and inclusion outcomes, will enable us to drive meaningful change throughout the organization and better serve our diverse customer base and underserved communities,” Scharf said.
The creation of this elevated role was one of several initiatives Scharf announced in June 2020 as part of the company’s expanded commitments to diversity and inclusion. Despite these initiatives, in an internal memo from June, Scharf said that there was “a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from” and later doubled down on the sentiment in a Zoom meeting with employees, according to Reuters. Scharf later apologized for the comments, according to Reuters.
