Former senior Morgan Stanley banker Colm Kelleher has been picked to be the next chairman of UBS, just hours after Deutsche Bank went for less well-known Dutch businessman Alexander Wynaendts as its next chair.
Grabbing Kelleher was a surprise, and a coup for UBS, and gives the world’s biggest wealth manager someone with decades of experience of investment banking and wealth management – and crucial experience in the US market where it is targeting growth. That is seen as a good fit with CEO Ralph Hamers, who took over in November 2020 and whose strong suits are retail banking and digital trends.
Wynaendts is more of an unknown quantity and has the tougher job. Deutsche has had a long search for a new chair to replace Paul Achleitner, who has had a turbulent decade at the helm, with the German bank struggling to make profits, falling foul of regulators in the US and Europe and still has work to do to cut costs and find a winning strategy. Wynaendts will be tasked with improving relationships with politicians in Berlin and regulators in Frankfurt and the US.
Wynaendts and Kelleher will come in as outsiders with no links to UBS or Deutsche Bank, and are not Swiss or German nationals. If approved, Kelleher will start in April and Wynaendts in May.
“Wicked humour”
Kelleher is an amiable and straight-talking Irishman, who is due to take over from Axel Weber, UBS chairman since 2012.
When Kelleher left Morgan Stanley two years ago CEO James Gorman praised his intellect and “competitive streak” and said he was his most important adviser. “At the same time his sharp mind, wicked humour and Irish charm sets him apart in the world of all-too-often-dull business leaders,” Gorman said.
The Irishman, 64, is expected to be based in Switzerland and work full-time. UBS has a relatively fixed strategy and that is not expected to change – it cut back its investment bank years ago to focus on its core wealth arm, and is targeting growth among wealthy US and Asian clients, including via digital platforms. It is wants to sell more investment banking and asset management products to wealthy clients.
UBS called Kelleher “the ideal fit”. He was Morgan Stanley president from 2015 until he retired in June 2019, overseeing the investment bank and wealth management arm. He previously ran its European operations and was finance chief during the 2008 crisis when he slashed the bank's balance sheet and helped get a US$9bn investment from Japan's MUFG. He has been linked in the past with top jobs, notably at Barclays.
Kelleher joined Morgan Stanley in fixed income sales in 1989, and moved up the ranks to head global capital markets from 2006–2007 becoming financial officer and co-head of strategy from 2007–2009. He moved on to run institutional securities from 2010–2015.
The keen Game of Thrones fan was often the bank’s enforcer, including making deep cuts to the bond trading desk in 2015 when it slashed staff by a quarter but left it still able to compete with bigger rivals.
The qualified accountant is a native of County Cork but was raised mostly in England and has a master’s degree in modern history from Oxford University, and enjoys wine, classical music, cigars and watching London football team Chelsea. He has been outspoken on Brexit, and wrote a piece in The Irish Times in October 2016 warning about the danger to the financial system of a hard Brexit.
Wynaendts is less well known in banking, but has had a long career in finance. He was CEO of Dutch insurer Aegon from 2008–2020, which included the early task of navigating and paying back a €4bn state bailout, and then restructuring operations, including a raft of disposals, acquisitions and partnerships.
“Alex has experience in the fields that always made Deutsche Bank stand out: strong expertise in retail, corporate and capital markets business as well as in asset management – and a global network,” CEO Sewing told staff in a memo.
Wynaendts began his career at ABN AMRO in 1984, and spent 13 years in Amsterdam and London working in capital markets, asset management, corporate finance and private banking. He joined Aegon in 1997 and was in charge of international growth from 2003, becoming chief operating officer in 2007 and CEO a year later.
He has been on the board of Citigroup since September 2019, but has stepped down from that role. He is also on the board of Uber Technologies and Air France-KLM.
He will have more early work on his plate than Kelleher. Deutsche Bank has stabilised since the appointment of Sewing as CEO in 2018, who has cut costs, slashed jobs, streamlined its investment bank and returned the bank to profit.
But there is much still to do. Deutsche has to prove it can sustain profitability, and is still under the eye of regulators in the US and Europe after fines in recent years for failings related to US mortgages, anti-money laundering controls and compliance failings related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
UBS also nominated Lukas Gaehwiler as vice chairman. Gaehwiler is a Swiss national who is chairman of the bank's Swiss entity.