Nordquist to Lead Wells Fargo Insurance Small Business, Personal Lines Unit

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Wells Fargo & Co. promoted Laurie Nordquist to head of the unit providing insurance to individuals and small businesses, replacing Anne Doss, the executive who died in August at age 56.

Nordquist, 54, will lead a team at the bank’s insurance brokerage that provides auto, home and life policies for individuals and property and liability coverage for commercial clients. Based in Minneapolis, she starts Dec. 16 and reports to Laura Schupbach, head of Wells Fargo Insurance, the San Francisco-based bank said in a statement.

Doss died Aug. 14 in a Minnesota hotel room during a business trip from “apparent natural causes,” according to the coroner’s report. She had been promoted eight months earlier as part of a push to boost collaboration between insurance, business and retail-banking groups at Wells Fargo, which is the largest U.S. home lender.

“Growing personal and small business insurance is a natural fit in Wells Fargo’s vision to help our customers,” Schupbach said in the statement announcing Nordquist’s promotion. “The strong relationships she’s developed throughout the bank will be tremendous assets.”

Nordquist, who joined the bank in 1990, was most recently executive vice president and director for Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust, which serves more than 5,200 retirement plans, according to the statement.

Joe Ready, also an executive vice president, becomes the sole director of the institutional retirement business.