William Daley, Wells Fargo’s vice chairman of public affairs, will retire at the end of this year, the company announced Thursday.
Daley joined Wells Fargo in 2019 from BNY Mellon to lead the newly created public affairs division under CEO Charlie Scharf, another BNY Mellon transplant. As part of the group, Daley oversaw government relations, corporate communications, corporate branding and community relations.
He led an effort to repair the lender’s reputation in the years following the fake-accounts scandal that blew up in 2016.
“We’ve made real progress in improving Wells Fargo’s standing in the public eye. I see it in the data, and I hear it in the conversations I have both internally and externally, across different parts of the country, and across party lines,” Daley said in a statement. “Charlie’s leadership and the management team he has assembled have dramatically changed the company, and I have the utmost confidence that Wells Fargo’s transformation will continue on a successful path.”
Daley previously served as secretary of commerce from 1997 to 2000, under President Bill Clinton. He later worked as White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama in 2011 and 2012.
“Bill has been an invaluable asset to the company,” Scharf said in a statement. “During his time at Wells Fargo, we’ve strengthened our relationships with the communities we serve; established new programs in housing, small business, and other areas that have had an impact on hundreds of thousands of people; and worked to rebuild our reputation both nationally and locally.”
Daley leads a team of more than 900 employees and plans to return home to Chicago and continue speaking and consulting, according to Axios.
Wells Fargo has not yet announced future leadership plans for its public-affairs group.
