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Sergio Ermotti is wrestling with the decision of when to leave the top job at UBS. His handling of a key potential successor in 2018 raises questions over how big a role the CEO holds in the overall planning.

UBS Chairman Axel Weber was at the center of a messy public debate over succession at the Swiss wealth manager last year, as finews.com reported. The German ex-central banker took the heat – but a key player in the botched episode was none other than Sergio Ermotti, finews.com has learned.

The long-standing UBS CEO blindsided Weber with last-minute news that Andrea Orcel, its top investment banker, was leaving, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Ermotti kept the explosive news to himself for more than ten days before informing Weber, in Singapore, ahead of a regular board meeting, the people said.

The lag between Ermotti learning of the high-profile departure in the first week of September and passing it on to the board in the week of September 17 proved hugely meaningful. Directors including Anne Godbehere, who has since left UBS, David Sidwell, and Robert Scully were upset: by the time the board learned Orcel had an offer from Santander, it felt hamstrung to do anything, the people said.

Anger in Jam-Packed Agenda

By that time Santander was just one week away from publicly naming Orcel as its new CEO. Several directors privately voiced their anger over the late notice amid an already-packed board agenda, the people said. The reason? Orcel had apparently figured prominently in internal succession plans, they said.

This counters what Ermotti had conveyed to Orcel over the years: that the Italian dealmaker didn’t have a chance at the top spot. The considerable effort UBS put into trying and keep him, as finews.com reported previously, worked to disprove this. A spokesman for UBS denied Ermotti relayed a lack of prospect for the top job to Orcel.

Ermotti, who had lost another potential internal successor, Juerg Zeltner, nine months before Orcel left, emerges as a central figure in UBS’ crafting of a succession plan. The long-standing CEO, who has told colleagues he would like to close out one decade running the Swiss wealth manager, has regularly boasted of the deep bench UBS has to replace him.