A former top manager of the American investment bank Morgan Stanley is to become the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swiss UBS. After months of searching, the largest institute in the country proposed Colm Kelleher to succeed Axel Weber. The former President of the Bundesbank will soon reach the ten-year term in office.
Kelleher, born in 1957, has a deep understanding of the global banking landscape, it said. “With more than 30 years of leadership experience and excellent relationships around the world, he is an ideal fit for UBS,” Weber said in a press release. The Irishman has yet to be elected by UBS shareholders at the Annual General Meeting in April. Kelleher had worked for Morgan Stanley for 30 years before taking his hat in 2019. During the financial crisis, the investment banker was the institute’s chief financial officer – and has meanwhile also been considered a candidate to succeed CEO James Gorman. Most recently, Kelleher was responsible for asset management, among other things. According to a media report, Deutsche Bank major shareholder Cerberus Kelleher recently brought it into play as the new chairman of the supervisory board in Germany. But the plan failed because Kelleher doesn’t speak German and doesn’t know the German banking market.
In order to strengthen the relationship between the Board of Directors and politics in their home country, UBS also nominated Lukas Gähwiler from Switzerland for election to the committee. Gähwiler is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Group’s Swiss subsidiary. Board members of Swiss companies have more competencies than German supervisory boards and are also responsible for strategy, among other things.