Wells Fargo hires Comerica's Julia Wellborn to lead private bank

Wells Fargo & Co said on Wednesday Julia Wellborn will become the head of Private Wealth Management, ending a months-long search for a leader following the retirement of Jay Welker last year.

Wellborn joins Wells Fargo from Comerica Bank where she was head of wealth management. Prior to Comerica, she was a regional president at Wachovia Corp, which Wells Fargo bought in the throes of the financial crisis.

In her new role, Wellborn will relocate from Dallas to New York to oversee Wells Fargo's Private Bank and Abbott Downing business, which caters to ultra-high-networth individuals.

The hire is the latest in a string of external recruits to join Wells Fargo over the past year. Wells Fargo has shaken up its upper ranks to show regulators it is committed to fixing a culture that caused a wide-ranging sales practice scandal and resulted in billions of dollars in fines. So far this year the bank has added executives from JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and Deutsche Bank to its upper ranks.

Wells Fargo's board is also looking for an outsider to fill its vacant chief executive officer position. The search has dragged on for roughly four months.