The Swiss bank is reinforcing its domestic business with two prominent female bankers – one who just joined from a local rival.
Zurich-based UBS is naming Simone Westerfeld (pictured below) as head of its private client business in Switzerland, effective in January. She replaces Roger von Mentlen, who is returning, but advising the bank and Westerfeld until next April.
The move represents a rapid advancement for Westerfeld, a rare woman in the C-suite of Swiss banking. She joined UBS three weeks ago, taking a top Swiss job spearheading multinationals and strategic transactions within UBS' corporate and institutional clients. Westerfeld had taken herself out of the running for the top job at Basel's cantonal bank, as finews.com reported in February.
Digital Platforms & Marketplaces als neuer Bereich
The Swiss bank also said it is naming Martha Boeckenfeld (pictured below) to its top management in Switzerland. Boeckenfeld will run the newly-created unit for digital platforms and marketplaces, and report to Swiss boss Axel Lehmann.
Her purview will include «mortgage machine» Atrium and a planned new platform for home equity. UBS said the project is in a test phase and should launch in the first six months of next year. Boeckenfeld, who is German, was most recently part of a fund project launched by ex-«Bild» editor Kai Dieckmann and banker Lenny Fischer.
Like Fischer, she previously worked at German investment bank Kleinwort Benson (Boeckenfeld was CFO and later CEO of BHF Kleinwort Benson). She is also on the board of Italian bank Unicredit.
