Wells Fargo announced that Clay Hale has joined the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) as co-head of Equity Capital Markets (ECM) within the Banking division. He will co-lead the ECM team alongside Jill Ford, who joined the Company in September of this year. He reports to Tim O’Hara, head of Banking, and is based in New York. Clay joins from Citigroup where he was most recently global head of Consumer & Retail (C&R) Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory.

“We are pleased to welcome Clay to Wells Fargo. A veteran investment banker with a strong track record in leading equity capital markets and industry coverage teams, he joins our platform at an exciting time,” said O’Hara. “Clay will partner with Jill to drive origination activity, lead equity capital markets transactions across multiple industries, and support us in the growth ambitions of our Corporate & Investment Bank.”

Jill Ford, co-head of ECM added: “I’ve worked across the table from Clay on many transactions through the years. He is an incredibly skilled banker and I’m excited to partner with him to lead and grow Wells Fargo’s ECM business.”

With nearly 30 years of investment banking experience, Clay spent 20 years in Citigroup’s ECM business where he ultimately held leadership roles including co-head of the Equity Capital Markets, Americas group (2016-2019) and head of the Strategic Equity Solutions, Americas group (2005-2019). He has led ECM transactions for numerous corporate and financial sponsor clients across industries including Industrials, Chemicals, Packaging, Homebuilding, Media, Consumer and Retail, among others. Clay joined the former Smith Barney in 1995 working in the Energy and Power and M&A groups before transitioning to ECM.

Clay received a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College.