(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said on Thursday it hired Sarah Devany as its first vice president and chief operating officer, succeeding Mark Gould, who became chief payment executive for the whole Fed system in April.
Devany will join the central bank on Dec. 1 from asset management firm TIAA Kaspick, where she is president. The Fed's 12 regional banks typically fill their No. 2 spots with hires from within, as the Dallas Fed did last month when it elevated its chief of supervision to fill the open spot.
That may be changing as the central bank pushes to bring more diversity to its top leadership. Devany is the second outside hire in two years by a regional Fed bank for a COO position.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has also pledged to find "diverse candidates" to fill the top jobs at the Dallas Fed and the Boston Fed after their two presidents left under the cloud of an ethics scandal. U.S. lawmakers have also said they want more diversity on the Fed board itself, which is currently all white and majority male.