In spite of the way he and his family have been targeted by Occupy protestors or treated during Congressional hearings as the President and CEO of Wells Fargo Bank, Tim Sloan remains one of San Marino’s most beloved citizens.
And it was a noticeably rested, relaxed Sloan who last Thursday addressed the Rotary Club of San Marino in Fellowship Hall at San Marino Community Church, his chosen place of worship.
With his wife Lisa at the dais, Sloan led the overflow audience through a recap of his 39-year career in banking, which ended on June 30 when he stepped down from his position at Wells Fargo. But no Sloan appearance would be complete without a healthy dose of his trademark dry humor. He was introduced as a co-recipient of Rotary’s prestigious Honorary Paul Harris Fellowship along with fellow San Marinan Greg Forgatch and Sloan had led off with a witty retort.
“I guess it takes both Greg and myself to make one person,” he said as the audience roared in laughter. He even had a zinger for this reporter in his repertoire.
“It’s THE University of Michigan, Mitch,” he said, dismissing Ohio State’s claim to the prefix.
But then it was on to his lifetime in banking, which he recalled by remembering watching the first ATM being wheeled into the lobby of the Standard Federal Savings & Loan branch in which he worked shortly after graduating from THE U of M.
“The transformation in banking has been incredible,” he said. “The pace of innovation and technology and how they impact the banking industry is amazing and the convenience it allows in unprecedented.”
Sloan mentioned the banking industry’s increasing investment in safety and security from cyber criminals and terrorists. declaring that indicating that “5,000 times an hour, someone tries to break into Wells Fargo.”
“Not the old way,” he said, “but that still happens 2-3 times a week across the country.”
He said that there are approximately half the number of banking facilities as there were when he started and “soon there will be half as many again.”
Sloan then explained what he has since distilled to be his five personal lessons on leadership, which included run towards challenges, take on roles that terrify you, stand up for what you believe, take responsibility when you are wrong and know your vison, goals and values.
“And repeat your visions, goals and values over and over again,” Sloan said. “And when you are finished repeat them over and over again.” He provided an example for each of his five points. When explaining the need to take on roles that terrify you, Sloan mentioned how he felt when he became CEO at Wells Fargo.
“A number of analysts and investors covering Wells questioned if I would be successful,” he recalled. “I even read in the Wall Street Journal that I wasn’t going to be successful. It can get you to wake up in the middle of the night wondering if they are right. What it really means is you just have to work that much harder.”
He harkened back to 2016 when for his lesson of taking responsibility for one’s failures.
“It was very difficult,” Sloan explained. “One of the reasons was our 250,000 team members felt as if my predecessor had blamed them for everything. It was very clear that the first thing I needed to do was take responsibility on behalf of the leadership team. I took responsibility and it had an incredibly positive impact. He trotted out the adage that “success has many fathers; failure is an orphan.”
“If you want someone who is working for you or with you to believe in something and accomplish something, they have to believe in you, he said. “They have to know that you have got their back.”
Sloan explained that he made it a point to educate Wells Fargo’s employees on the institution’s vision, values and goals.
“Any organization you are involved in, if you don’t know the vision, values and the goals, you cannot be successful,” he said. “I learned that very early on in my tenure as CEO. We had this visions and values booklet, but the problem was it was 50 pages long. Imagine trying to get a quarter of a million people on the same page. It’s tough, so I put the 50 pages on a wallet-sized card.”
With that he flashed the card at the audience with the same zeal as a soccer official puts a player or coach on notice.
Sloan didn’t shy away from tough questions when the microphone was handed over to the audience.
When asked why he eventually resigned, Sloan said he was “becoming a liability.”
“Some of our stakeholders just couldn’t get over the fact that someone who had been there during the tough times was responsible for changing it,” he said. “Even though I was confident about our direction, it became clear we needed different leadership.”
When asked about his experience testifying on front of Congress, Sloan said “I wouldn’t recommend it,” which elicited another roar of laughter. “You realize that you are just a prop on a television show and you didn’t get to write the script.”
When asked what he really wanted to say questioners, Sloan said “it would be so satisfying if it went the way I wanted.”
He said that during rehearsals, he was encouraged to bring to mind his deepest thoughts “so you can get rid of them when you are eventually asked the question.”
Sloan said he is “not sure” what is next.
“Lisa keeps asking me that,” he said, smiling and turning to his right to acknowledge his wife. “I don’t think I want to be the CEO of another public company. I will most likely get involved with a private company.”
That, spend time with his grandchildren and one more important life goal.
“Work on lowering my golf handicap.”
The Sloans were major donors on the project that brought a synthetic turf surface to San Marino High School’s Titan Stadium and also supported the new Barth Athletics Center at Huntington Middle School. Sloan was president of San Marino National Little League in 2001 and coached 17 of his three children’s youth sports teams during his 32 years in the city. Lisa and Tim Sloan were acknowledged in 2017 by Villa Esperanza Services for their longstanding support of the organization, which provides services to the developmentally disabled. At last Thursday’s Rotary meeting, Tim Sloan mentioned that his wife will soon be playing a major role at the Union Rescue Mission.
