Sterling Financial names board chair

Sterling Financial Corp. on Monday announced the appointment of a former Wells Fargo & Co. executive as chairman of the board.

The appointment of Leslie “Les” Biller must be approved by Sterling regulators and is subject to completion of its $720 million recapitalization effort.

Biller, 62, is the chief executive officer of Greendale Capital, a private investment and consulting company. Before founding Greendale in 2002, he was the executive vice president and chief operating officer at Wells Fargo.

He had been president and COO of Norwest Corp. when it merged with Wells Fargo in 1998, and also held executive positions at Bank of America and Citicorp.

Biller would succeed William Eisenhart, who stepped in as chairman when longtime chairman and Sterling co-founder Harold Gilkey left the company in October.

Bert Caldwell