Wells Fargo names Jim Hays new head of brokerage unit

He replaces David Kowach, who moves over to lead community banking division.

In a reshuffling of senior management, Wells Fargo & Co. said late Wednesday that Jim Hays, a 14-year veteran of the firm, would become the new head of Wells Fargo Advisors.

Mr. Hays replaces David Kowach, who is moving over to head community banking.

Mr. Haysmost recently was head of the newly formed Private Wealth Financial Advisors Group, teams of advisers who work primarily with high-net-worth clients.

Mr. Kowach will report to Mary Mack, head of consumer banking. He had been in charge of Wells Fargo Advisors since 2016.

Mr. Hays will report to Jonathan Weiss, head of Wells Fargo’s Wealth & Investment Management Group.

Mr. Kowach started his career working with clients as a financial adviser, according to a statement from the company. He has worked in the financial services industry for more than 28 years, most with Wells Fargo Advisors.

The bank also promoted Andy Rowe to be enterprise customer excellence executive, and Elli Dai as small business and personal lending group executive.

Wells Fargo Advisors had $1.7 trillion in client assets at the end of June and 13,799 financial advisers.