The 2015 Tech 50: Kevin Rhein

The Wells Fargo chief information officer climbs to No. 19 on this year’s Tech 50 ranking.

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< The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge

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19
Kevin Rhein
Chief Information Officer
Wells Fargo & Co.
Last year: 27

Wells Fargo & Co. enhanced its reputation by being one of the few big banks to remain profitable and virtually scandal-free through the financial crisis. Perhaps not coincidentally, the $1.7 trillion-in-assets, San Francisco–based company has maintained technological leadership by building on a heritage that includes some of the first Internet innovations in the 1990s. Last year its number of active online customers climbed 8 percent, to 25 million (out of a total customer base of 70 million), and 15 million are banking on mobile devices. For Kevin Rhein, 61, who became CIO in 2011 after working in card services and consumer lending, the goal is now “a seamless omnichannel experience,” whether customers are online or mobile, on the telephone, in stores (as Wells calls its nearly 9,000 branches) or at 12,500 ATMs. Wells has implemented “click to care” in its mobile app, providing a direct link to call-center operators, as well as image-capture technology to speed up check processing. By year’s end, all 15,000 members of the Wells Fargo Advisors network are expected to have the Smart2Go app for mobile interaction with their clients. Noting that Wells has launched a program to develop relationships with fintech start-ups and to coinvest with venture capital firms, Rhein says, “We have to think about how we deal with disrupters, but we also try to identify technologies that could have legs for our organization.” Rhein, who is based in Minneapolis and presides over a far-flung workforce of 25,000, says that being decentralized, as a result of multiple acquisitions, is an advantage for recruitment. “Our major hubs for tech are in Charlotte, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Phoenix and San Francisco,” he says. “This has allowed us to have a much broader and more diverse candidate pool.”

See the full story, “The 2015 Tech 50: Racers to the Edge.”


The 2015 Tech 50

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1. Jeffrey Sprecher
Intercontinental Exchange

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2. Catherine Bessant
Bank of America Corp.

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3. Phupinder Gill
CME Group

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4. Lance Uggla
Markit

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5. Robert Goldstein
BlackRock

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6. Shawn Edwards &
Vlad Kliatchko
Bloomberg

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7. R. Martin Chavez
Goldman Sachs Group

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8. Deborah Hopkins
Citi Ventures

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9. Stephen Neff
Fidelity Investments

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10. Adena Friedman
Nasdaq OMX Group

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11. David Craig
Thomson Reuters

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12. Daniel Coleman
KCG Holdings

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13. Michael Spencer
ICAP

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14. Michael Bodson
Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.

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15. Charles Li
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

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16. Chris Concannon
BATS Global Markets

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17. Christopher Perretta
State Street Corp.

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18. Antoine Shagoury
London Stock Exchange Group

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19. Kevin Rhein
Wells Fargo & Co.

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20. Neil Katz
D.E. Shaw & Co.

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21. Lee Olesky
Tradeweb Markets

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22. Richard McVey
MarketAxess Holdings

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23. Seth Merrin
Liquidnet Holdings

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24. Robert Alexander
Capital One Financial Corp.

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25. Frank Bisignano
First Data Corp.

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26. John Marcante
Vanguard Group

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27. Joseph Squeri
Citadel

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28. Lou Eccleston
TMX Group

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29. Claude Honegger
Credit Suisse

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30. Chris Corrado
MSCI

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31. David Gledhill
DBS Bank

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32. John Bates
Software AG

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33. Michael Cooper
BT Radianz

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34. Gary Scholten
Principal Financial Group

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35. Sunil Hirani
trueEX Group

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36. Hauke Stars
Deutsche BÖrse

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37. Brian Conlon
First Derivatives

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38. Jim Minnick
eVestment

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39. Lars Seier Christensen & Kim Fournais

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40. Tyler Kim
MaplesFS

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41. Jim McGuire
Charles Schwab Corp.

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42. Steven O’Hanlon
Numerix

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43. Sebastián Ceria
Axioma

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44. Yasuki Okai
NRI Holdings America

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45. Stephane Dubois
Xignite

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46. Mazy Dar
OpenFin

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47. Brian Sentance
Xenomorph Software

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48. Mas Nakachi
OpenGamma

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49. John Lehner
BNY Mellon Technology Solutions Group

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50. Jock Percy
Perseus


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