In this March 10, 2020 file photo, Wells Fargo CEO and President Charles Scharf is seated before he testifies during a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, on Capitol Hill, in Washington. Scharf apologized Wednesday, Sept. 23 for comments he made that dismissed concerns that the banking industry, which has a long history of racist behavior, wasn’t doing enough to promote and retain diverse talent. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
By Ken Sweet
Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf apologized Wednesday for comments he made about the difficulty of finding qualified Black executives.
Scharf said that "there is a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from" in corporate America. The memo to employees was written in June but became public this week.
The comments and similar statements made in a Zoom meeting, reported by Reuters, led to an intense backlash in Washington and on social media.
"Perhaps it is the CEO of Wells Fargo who lacks the talent to recruit Black workers," said Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, on Twitter.
Scharf on Wednesday said in a prepared statement that his comments reflected "my own unconscious bias."
"There is no question Wells Fargo has to make meaningful progress to increase diverse representation," he wrote. Wells has pledged to increase the hiring of minority candidates, particularly through Black colleges and universities, as well as new anti-racism training programs at the bank.
American banking is dominated by leadership that is largely white and male. None of the six big Wall Street banks have ever had a Black or female CEO. Citigroup a few weeks ago announced it would promote a woman to CEO next year, the first on Wall Street to do so.
The last prominent African American to serve as CEO at a large financial services company was Kenneth Chenault, the former CEO of American Express. He retired in 2018. In an interview with The Associated Press at the time, Chenault called the lack of a pipeline to recruit and retain diverse talent "embarrassing" to the financial services industry.
Stanley O'Neal, the former CEO Merrill Lynch while it was still an independent company, is also Black. He resigned in 2007 during the firm's collapse.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
