KBL boss Juerg Zeltner is hiring a former UBS banker, finews.com can reveal. The new hire was behind a robo adviser buried by the Swiss giant last year.
Luxembourg-based KBL has hired Kris Tegg (pictured below) as its head of offering and distribution, a source familiar with the hire told finews.com. A spokesman for the wealth manager now run by former UBS top private banker Juerg Zeltner confirmed that Tegg, a 14-year-veteran of UBS, joined KBL last month.
Before leaving UBS in January, Tegg led the commercial side of UBS Smartwealth. The purely digital wealth manager was championed by Zeltner during his tenure at the Swiss bank, but quickly mothballed by his successors last year. UBS, Switzerland's largest wealth manager, also whittled down a once-swashbuckling unit of innovators for wealthy clients into a skeleton team, as finews.com reported in July.
At KBL, the 36-year-old Tegg will help the bank hone its value proposition, offering and pricing, investment process, advisory and sales approach, and distribution management, the spokesman said.
UBS Vets Reunite
Zeltner has enlisted several former UBS colleagues, including ex-Europe boss Jakob Stott and former finance executive Dagmer Kamber-Borens. Under Zeltner, KBL is aiming to reinvent itself from a group of eight disparate European wealth managers into a unified brand underscored with a savvy digital presence.
Qatar's ruling al-Thani family controls 99.9 percent of KBL. Zeltner, who is aiming for a Pictet-style imprint with KBL, told finews.ch (in German) that the bank had found a mechanism to share profits with «partners».
