Wells Fargo names Betsy Duke chairman

Wells Fargo & Co. on Tuesday announced the promotion of Betsy Duke, who will become the first woman to oversee one of the largest banks in the nation.

Duke, who began a career in banking as a teller, will become chairman of the lender’s board at the start of next year, capping one of the most epic climbs — by man or woman — into the financial industry’s top echelon. Her career already included a stint as a Federal Reserve governor, starting on the brink of 2008’s financial meltdown. This time, she will supervise a management team contending with scandal after scandal.

“Walking into the middle of a crisis is not new to me,” Duke said. With executives already enacting a plan to overhaul the bank, “it’ll be my job to communicate between the board and management and to make sure that our oversight is as strong as it can possibly be,” she said.

Duke, 65, is succeeding Stephen Sanger as part of a broader board overhaul in which he and two other directors are leaving after scandals on their watch. Sanger, a member of the board since 2003, became the lender’s chairman less than a year ago when John Stumpf stepped down from both that role and as chief executive officer. At the time, lawmakers were assailing the bank for opening millions of accounts without customers’ permission.

Duke graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1974 with a degree in drama. She worked at a dinner theater, served beer at a restaurant on Sunday afternoons and eventually took a third job, as a drive-up bank teller.