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| Sallie Krawcheck: enormous challenge to win hearts and minds |
The appointment of Sallie Krawcheck to head Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s wealth management business looks to be a gamble for chief executive Ken Lewis.
Krawcheck, the former head of global wealth management and CFO at Citi, was hired in August to run Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s wealth management operation, prompting Dan Sontag, 30-year veteran of Merrill Lynch and former head of Merrill Lynch global wealth management, to resign.
Krawcheck now stands as one of three potential successors to Lewis. The others include Brian Moynihan, who was president of global wealth investment management for Bank of America and co-head of the investment bank. He has been moved to be head of consumer banking in what some saw as a surprise move after little more than six months in his previous role, but which Bank of America insiders say might well be an effort by Lewis to round out a long-serving colleague’s experience through running the bank’s biggest businesses.
The third is Thomas Montag, now sole head of the corporate and investment bank, who was recruited to Merrill Lynch from Goldman Sachs last year by John Thain.
