Dick Kovacevich

While many of his peers have been embroiled in one scandal or another, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC ) CEO Richard M. Kovacevich, 59, has kept his bank safely out of the fray. Forget risky telecom loans or big-league investment banking business. Kovacevich doesn't stray beyond the basics: retail and wholesale banking and mortgage lending.

Kovacevich, who became head of San-Francisco-based Wells Fargo after it merged in 1998 with Norwest Corp., has concentrated on selling such unglamorous services as payroll management for small businesses and checking accounts and credit cards for consumers. Mortgage refinancings have also been a pot of gold. The bank racked up $221 billion worth of new mortgages during the first nine months of 2002, blowing past the $202 billion it lent in all of 2001. That helped Wells Fargo, the fifth-largest bank in the U.S. in assets, post a 19.69% return on equity in the first three quarters, beating other big banks. Net income climbed 11% to $4.24 billion.