Bank of America Corp on Monday appointed a former colleague of Sallie Krawcheck as its Merrill Lynch global wealth management unit's new chief investment officer.

Lisa Shalett, a former Sanford C. Bernstein LLC CEO, will oversee investment strategy for global wealth management, including the second largest U.S. brokerage force with more than 15,000 advisers.

Shalett also will oversee the division's investment guidance teams and the ultra high net worth office, and will report to Kunal Kamlani, head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's global investment solutions.

This is a key role for us, and we were looking for someone with great depth in a research background, but also a commercial bent, said Kamlani in an interview with Reuters.

Shalett's investment strategy responsibilities will not extend to U.S. Trust.

Shalett is the latest in a series of hires by Krawcheck, BofA's global wealth and investment management head, who continues to build her division's executive ranks since assuming her post in August 2009.

Last Fall, Krawcheck hired former Citigroup Inc colleague Andy Sieg to oversee the wealth division's retirement business -- a key area of emphasis in her vision for the division's business model. Krawcheck is a former chief financial officer of Citigroup.

In February, BofA hired Kamlani to his current post, also from Citigroup.

Now, Krawcheck has hired a close colleague from the firm where she first rose to Wall Street prominence.

Earlier this decade, both Shalett and Krawcheck were rising stars within Sanford C. Bernstein LLC's executive ranks.

When Krawcheck worked as director of research, Shalett was associate research director.

In 2002, when Krawcheck, then Sanford's CEO, left to run Citigroup's brokerage business, Shalett succeeded her.

Shalett joins Bank of America from AllianceBernstein LP, where she worked as head of general growth equities.

Kamlani said prior executive searches he conducted with Krawcheck helped provide some insight into who they wanted for the current post.

We didn't necessarily need to hire a recruiter for this, Kamlani said. We knew exactly what we were looking for.

Bank of America shares closed up 3 percent at $14.15 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Carol Bishopric)

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