UBS makes sweeping changes at the top

UBS Group announced nine changes to its group executive board and its board of directors, including a major shake-up of its wealth management division, on Tuesday, the same day the company released its third quarter results.

UBS makes sweeping changes at the top
2 minutes

President wealth management Americas (WMA) and president UBS Americas, Robert J. McCann, will step down from his current roles, as well as the executive board, to assume a new role as chairman UBS Americas.

McCann’s decision to step down follows six years at the helm, during which time he led WMA to achieve $1m (£0.65m, €0.9m) in annual revenue per adviser, £1bn in annual profit, and $1trn in invested assets.

His replacement for both roles has been named as Tom Naratil, currently group chief financial officer and group chief operating officer. Naratil joined UBS in 2000 after 17 years at Paine Webber. Prior to his current role at UBS, he was chief financial officer and chief risk officer of WMA.

Kirt Gardner, currently chief financial officer of wealth management, has been appointed group chief financial offer. He will also become a member of the executive board.

Axel P. Lehmann has been named group chief operating officer and appointed to the company executive board. He previously worked at Zurich Insurance group for nearly 20 years.

Risk officer goes

Following over 30 years with UBS, group chief risk officer Philip J. Lofts has decided to step down from his role and the executive board at the end of the year.

Lofts will be succeeded on the executive board by Christian Bluhm who joins UBS from FMS Wertmanagement, where he was the spokesman for the executive board; as well as chief risk & financial officer.

After nearly seven years as president UBS Asia Pacific, Chi-Won Yoon has decided to step down from his current role and the executive board at the end of the year.

Yoon will be succeeded on the executive board by Kathryn Shih who has led the wealth management business of UBS in Asia Pacific for the past 13 years. Shih has been with UBS for 29 years in various Wealth Management and leadership roles, including chief executive of UBS Hong Kong.

UBS has also appointed Sabine Keller-Busse, current group head human resources, to the executive board.

All of the changes will take effect on 1 January 2016. 

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