Wells Fargo Auto Finance has lost at least three senior executives lately. Ankush “Andy” Chawla, the company’s chief credit officer; Lou Loquasto, vice president and head of marketing and business development; and Ken Gang, head of risk, left in July or August.
Wells Fargo & Co. spokesman Steve Carlson could not provide details of the departures, though he confirmed that none had yet been replaced. “It’s a big organization,” he said. “It’s hard to keep track of who comes and goes.”
The moves come on the heels of the June 12 appointment of Bob Hurzeler as president of the $27 billion auto group, a Chester, Pa.-based operating unit of Wells Fargo & Co. that is managed by Wells Fargo Financial. Hurzeler replaced Gary Lorenz, who resigned last November.
Loquasto joined Wells Fargo in 1995 as a credit manager. He was promoted to branch manager a year later, then to senior analyst and project manager in 2000. For the past six years he served in the VP post, tasked with growing loan volume through direct marketing programs and new channels, as well as positioning the company’s products and brand.
Since leaving Wells Fargo, Loquasto has taken a position as an adjunct marketing professor at Camden County College teaching a class called “Fundamentals of Selling.”
Gang joined Hyundai Motor Finance Corp. as director of risk.
Chawla, meanwhile, served as Wells Fargo Auto’s chief credit officer for a year. Prior to the appointment, he was senior vice president of enterprise risk management and chief risk officer of Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a mortgage real estate investment trust. Chawla has held other credit and risk-management posts at auto finance companies, including Triad Financial Corp., Bank One/JPMorgan Chase, and Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America.
—Marcie Belles
