Wells Fargo named Christel Kennedy head of Business Continuity and Resiliency, effective December 2. Kennedy will be based in New York and report to Saul Van Beurden, head of Technology.

“Christel is a proven leader with more than 30 years of experience leading change and transformation in the financial services industry,” said Van Beurden. “She has hands-on operational experience leading disaster recovery and business continuity planning and a track record of executing and driving transformational change. She will be a tremendous addition to Wells Fargo.”

Wells Fargo is continuing to enhance and strengthen the resiliency of critical assets including buildings, utilities, technologies, business operations and people. In her new role, Kennedy will define, govern and execute the company’s Business Continuity Program and continue integrating and strengthening corporate security infrastructure.

Since 2015, Kennedy has held several roles at Santander Bank and most recently was the company’s chief operating officer and director of Change Management. During this time, she was responsible for bank operations supporting all consumer and commercial products and services while also overseeing the company’s incident management and business continuity processes.

Prior to joining Santander Bank, Kennedy held numerous technology, risk management and business operations leadership roles at Citizens Financial Group and JPMorgan Chase.