Bio Box: John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo

CAREER: Stumpf's first job out of college, in 1976, was as a repo agent for a regional bank in Minnesota. A few years later, he joined Minneapolis-based Norwest Corp., which later bought Wells Fargo and adopted its name and San Francisco headquarters.

Stumpf worked as a regional president around the western U.S., and moved up to the CEO job in 2007 after Dick Kovacevich retired. In 2008, Stumpf led the bank as it scooped up rival Wachovia, elbowing Citigroup's bid out of the way and cementing its status as a relative champion in a financial crisis that felled many of its rivals.