Noel Illien
ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS said on Thursday it would share its top asset management role as part of an executive board shake-up, creating new responsibilities for the two main contenders to run the Swiss bank after Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti.
Rob Karofsky, the head of investment bank UBS, will become head of the Americas region and co-president of global asset management in July, along with current head of asset management Iqbal Khan, who will now also be responsible for the Asia-Pacific region.
Khan, a Swiss national, will move to Asia to take on the new role from 1 September. Khan and Karofsky, an American, are among the top domestic candidates to succeed Ermotti, who the bank has indicated could remain in power until at least 2027. .
Vontobel analyst Andreas Venditti called the personnel changes larger than expected.
“With these changes, Iqbal and Rob will be the leading candidates to become CEO of UBS,” he said.
Ermotti said in a statement that the new appointments will add “even greater emphasis to our long-term priorities and growth prospects, particularly in the Americas and Asia-Pacific.”
According to a recent media report, Ermotti has decided against naming an outside successor and intends to introduce internal candidates, as he did when he last left UBS in 2020.
“Our goal is to significantly increase the chances that we will have an internal candidate,” Ermotti told Reuters last month.
Beatrice Martin, UBS’ president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is also seen as a potential successor to Ermotti.
UBS, which is in the process of integrating its longtime rival Credit Suisse, made the announcement ahead of the merger of the banks’ major parent companies, which is due to be legally completed on Friday. UBS acquired Credit Suisse last year.
The merger of the parent company is expected to allow the Swiss bank to begin more complex integration phases, such as consolidating IT systems, migrating clients from Credit Suisse and reducing the bank’s expanded workforce of more than 110,000 people.
As part of the reorganization, former Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Kerner will leave the bank later this year, UBS said.
The bank also appointed George Athanasopoulos and Marco Valla as co-presidents of the investment bank, part of a series of changes UBS is putting into effect on July 1.
Damian Vogel will replace Christian Blum as Risk Officer as part of his previously announced departure. Blum will remain as an advisor.
UBS Americas President Naureen Hassan is due to step down effective July 1, one of a number of female executives to leave the bank in the past year.