UBS' top lawyer at its wealth management arm is leaving the Swiss bank, finews.com has learned. She is a fierce advocate for diversity in the male-dominated Swiss financial sector.
Maria Leistner, general counsel of UBS' $2.26 trillion private banking arm, is leaving UBS, a source familiar with the matter told finews.com. A spokesman for the Swiss bank confirmed her exit, saying that Leistner is taking on a challenge outside UBS. Leistner didn't comment to finews.com.
She is an UBS group management director, an elite squad of company's top 100 bankers who report directly to top management under CEO Sergio Ermotti. Besides her day job, she is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in finance, telling finews.ch (interview in German) last year that top management acts differently when women are included: «very efficiently, very directly. We express our opinions clearly. We have a fantastic atmosphere.»
Internal Talent
Leistner is to be replaced by Michael Crowl, currently UBS private bank's chief lawyer in the Americas, according to a memorandum seen by finews.com. Unlike Leistner, who is based in Zurich, Crowl will continue to be based in New York.
UBS' biggest legal problem at the moment is a high-stakes French criminal trial, in which the bank already suffered several major setbacks, as finews.com reported. Crowl will be backed up by David Kelly, who is currently UBS' main lawyer for transactions and disclosure.
«The above appointments show us what strong talent we have internally and that we have robust succession plans in place», UBS' top lawyer Markus Diethelm and private bank co-heads Tom Naratil and Martin Blessing wrote in the memo.
Series of Exits
Since jumping from Credit Suisse to UBS in late 2016, Leistner has stepped in as general counsel for UBS' investment bank and also overseen the bank's European arm's legal matters. She had clinched the top legal job in the wealth arm last year in a mega-merger between the international and American units.
The deal hasn't been resoundingly endorsed by investors, as finews.com reported. Leistner is the latest high-level executive to leave the wealth arm: German head Thomas Rodermann departed two weeks ago, shortly after onshore head in the country Barbara Rupf-Bee exited.
