Morgan Stanley Ex-President Colm Kelleher Elected as UBS Chairman

The ex-president at Morgan Stanley is taking over as UBS chairman, helping to guide the largest international wealth manager.

UBS shareholders yesterday voted to confirm former Morgan Stanley president Colm Kelleher as its new chairman and Lukas Gähwiler as new vice chairman for a one-year term of office. Kelleher is taking over from Axel Weber who, as previously announced, reached his 10-year term limit as chairman.

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Kelleher worked for Morgan Stanley for three decades, last serving as president of the investment bank from which he retired in 2019. 

Gähwiler is taking over from UBS director Jeremy Anderson.

The following directors were confirmed in their board posts: Jeremy Anderson, Claudia Böckstiegel, William C Dudley, Patrick Firmenich, Fred Hu, Mark Hughes, Nathalie Rachou, Julie G Richardson, Dieter Wemmer and Jeanette Wong. These appointments were for a one-year term of office.

On the compensation committee, shareholders confirmed Julie G Richardson, Dieter Wemmer and Jeanette Wong for a one-year term of office.

As also announced earlier, Reto Francioni did not stand for re-election to the board, having served from 2013. He became chairman of the supervisory board of UBS Europe SE.

Among other decisions, shareholders approved a new share buyback programme for this year.

In early February UBS reported a full-year pre-tax profit of $9.484 billion, rising 16 per cent on a year ago, taking account of a net credit loss release of $148 million against net credit loss costs in the pandemic-hit year of 2020.

In March UBS said it had identified a "small number" of global wealth management clients hit by recent sanctions imposed on Russia following Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine, and the affected number of loans outstanding comes to less than $10 million. 

Source: WealthBriefingAsia