Since leaving Goldman Sachs last year, Harvey Schwartz has entertained a number of career options. Wells Fargo CEO isn’t one of them.
Contrary to reports that circulated a week ago, the former president and co-chief operating officer at Goldman has not interviewed for the Wells position, according to two people close to Schwartz who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“He has been approached by numberous companies both public and private,” one of the people said. Schwartz is eager to dismiss reports that he is interested in the Wells position as the reports come almost a year to the day since he announced he was leaving Goldman.
His departure came after he lost out on a well-publicized race for the top Goldman job to David Solomon, succeeding Lloyd Blankfein.
Since then, Schwartz has hit the speaker’s circuit, traveling from California to China and wherever “he can make the most difference and impact,” one of the sources said. The speaking engagements have been with “people across business, philanthropy, public policy” as well as with young people at colleges including Rutgers in New Jersey and Shenzhen University in China’s Guandong province.
Schwartz’s spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Goldman’s share price was around a peak when Schwartz’s departure was announced and has been a downward slide since, falling about 23 percent over the past year.
Wells Fargo officials shot down the Schwartz speculation in a statement last week and did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Wells is the fourth-largest bank by assets but has suffered a succession of crises following disclosures that employees created millions of accounts for customers without their knowledge. The bank board has stuck by current CEO Tim Sloan amid the controversies, though he has taken substantial criticism from members of Congress and the bank has sustained scorn from its regulators at the Federal Reserve.
