Yesterday, Credit Suisse held its last annual general meeting. Shareholders at today's UBS AGM also experienced a «last». Outgoing CEO Ralph Hamers spoke in German to shareholders a final time.
With the state-sanctioned takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS on March 19, its CEO Ralph Hamers, who focused on agile working methodologies and encouraged the bank's employees to strive for «Purpose», was replaced in favor of former CEO Sergio Ermotti.
New Direction
With new priorities associated with the takeover of Credit Suisse, «the board of directors wanted someone with a different leadership profile to head up the firm. As you know, in the interests of the company and its stakeholders, and the interests of Switzerland and its financial sector, I offered to step down,» Hamers said in prepared remarks at the group's annual general meeting on Wednesday.
The new entity will have managed assets of over five trillion dollars, which will strengthen the position of UBS as a leading global wealth manager and provide great opportunities, the outgoing CEO said. But with all of this, «it also brings more responsibility he said.»
List of Accomplishments
Hamers also took time to share some of the accomplishments under his tenure. In the wealth management business in the United States and Asia-Pacific, he said UBS strengthened its «OneBank» approach for its clients. Both markets are key targets for UBS's wealth management business.
He said UBS stood by its clients through thick and thin whether pandemic, war or the latest banking crisis, while also maintaining a lid on costs.
We defined our «purpose» and implemented a strategy that works and transformed the firm to be simpler and more flexible and more relaxed said the man who introduced himself by saying «It's me, Ralph.»
Agility and Purpose
If two words sum up his tenure, they could very well be «agile» and «purpose». When he took the reins in 2020, he saw no reason to rebuild the entire institution, but instead a need for transformation. «That’s why I initiated a development process to make the bank simpler and more agile – for employees, and our clients.»
He pushed the bank to be more agile «because the demarcation lines shift and increasingly become blurred: things can’t always be dealt with in separate silos as they could in the past. That’s precisely why we’ve had plenty of success in recent years with our OneBank strategy.»
Hamers closed by thanking the executive board and his team, clients for their trust, and his colleagues.
He thanked shareholders for «your support – and for your patience in listening one last time to me speaking German…»
Perhaps when the dust settles, perhaps like Ermotti, Hamers will be back for a second act as CEO. Until then, auf wiedersehen, Ralph.
