By Colin Kellaher 



  Bank of America Corp. on Thursday said its board has designated Lionel Nowell to succeed Jack Bovender as lead independent director in April. 


  The Charlotte, N.C., bank said Mr. Bovender, 75 years old, would retire from the board at the annual shareholder meeting in April in accordance with its corporate-governance guidelines. 


  Mr. Bovender, a BofA director since January 2013, became lead independent director in October 2014 when the board voted to make Brian Moynihan chairman as well as chief executive. 


  The bank had previously split the roles of chairman and CEO in 2009 after a shareholder vote pressured it to do so, and the decision to reunite the roles drew criticism from some investors, partly because the board had to override the shareholder vote. 


  BofA at the time said it made the move after careful consideration, and that Mr. Moynihan, who still serves as chairman and CEO, was well suited for the job. 


  Mr. Nowell, 65, has been an independent director at Bank of America since January 2013 and also serves on the boards of Ecolab Inc. and Textron Inc. He previously served as senior vice president and treasurer of PepsiCo Inc. 


  --Christina Rexrode contributed to this article 


  Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com