The Swiss wealth manager employs a handful of bankers who could inherit the top job, CEO Sergio Ermotti insists. Who are they?
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti sparked a wave of speculation over his own succession with the appointment of ex-Credit Suisse banker Iqbal Khan (pictured below) as the co-head of the Swiss bank's flagship unit. Khan starts in October – with considerable credit in advance.
Ermotti told Swiss daily «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German) on Friday that UBS has at least three internal candidates for his own succession. The 59-year-old CEO enters his ninth year running the world's largest wealth manager this autumn, and has previously been coy about his future career plans and grumpy about succession.
Bench Weakened
The Swiss banker has always been fiercely proud of his bench of internal talent, even after it was severely depleted following the exit of private bank boss Juerg Zeltner 20 months ago and then last autumn, the departure of top investment banker Andrea Orcel.
His comments make clear that Khan, who some UBS insiders already see in Ermotti's job, is in the running. The second candidate is undoubtedly Sabine Keller-Busse (pictured below), an ex-McKinsey consultant who earned her chops at UBS as the bank's human resources and operating boss. Notably, Keller-Busse was moved into a European role that Ermotti himself held before he advanced to CEO in 2011.
Well-Connected American
Keller-Busse's weakness is that she can't show responsibility for running an operational business at UBS. While she and Khan undoubtedly are promising candidates, who else is Ermotti referring to whom UBS' board could be referring to?
Wealth co-head Tom Naratil is a 36-year veteran of UBS and Paine Webber before the Swiss bank's 2000 acquisition of the U.S. broker. The 59-year-old American banker is supremely well-connected in Zurich – where he was finance chief for four years until 2016. However, he hardly represents the type of rejuvenation that the candidacy of the 43-year-old Khan would.
Management Pushing 60
At the moment, two-thirds of UBS' top managers are older than 55 (eight of 13 including Ermotti). With Khan, that will drop to seven – Suni Harford (pictured below), one of the U.S.' highest-profile bankers who is also joining top management, is 57.
Ermotti won himself time with the management rejuvenation – and regained control of the narrative that escaped his and Chairman Axel Weber's control earlier this year. It also gives Khan, Keller-Busse, Naratil, and any other hopefuls time to prove their mettle to UBS' board.
