The Swiss bank's board is nominating a veteran of Morgan Stanley as chairman. UBS will also elevate a Swiss stalwart as his deputy.
Zurich-based UBS is nominating Colm Kelleher as its next chairman, it said in a statement on Saturday. The 64-year-old Irishman, who spent most of his career at Morgan Stanley in the U.S., is to replace Axel Weber, who will step down in April when he hits term limits.
UBS will also propose Lukas Gaehwiler (pictured below) as vice-chairman, it said. The 56-year-old is a former corporate banker who ran the bank in Switzerland until 2017, and now chairs the same domestic unit.
Swiss Balance
Kelleher in 2019 left Morgan Stanley, where he had overseen both institutional securities business as well as wealth management. He is battle-tested, having been finance chief and co-head of strategy at the U.S. bank during the 2008/09 financial crisis.
Gaehwiler is to ensure a «Swiss» balance in its board, a person familiar with the matter told finews.com. UBS itself seemed to acknowledge the cultural delicacy of a foreign-born chairman: part of Gaehwiler's job will be to represent UBS in Switzerland’s powerful industry associations and in the corridors of political power.
Weber is a former Bundesbanker who underwent a «Helvetization» by his predecessor when he arrived in 2011. The search to replace Weber involved both the outgoing chairman himself as well as CEO Ralph Hamers, UBS said in March.
Wide Search
Kelleher's nomination comes one year after that of António Horta-Osório at UBS' crosstown rival Credit Suisse – and on the same day that Germany's Deutsche Bank nominated Alex Wynaendts, a former insurance CEO who now sits on Citi's board, as its new chairman.
UBS considered candidates such as Roche's overseer Christoph Franz, Swiss ex-central banker Philipp Hildebrand, and ex-Unicredit boss Jean-Pierre Mustier.
Reporting by Katharina Bart and Claude Baumann
