Strategy & Practice Management

UBS shuffles top management

UBS head of wealth management and group executive board member, Jürg Zeltner to step down at year-end

Martin Blessing, currently President Personal & Corporate Banking and President UBS Switzerland, will become President Wealth Management. Blessing has successfully run the business of UBS in Switzerland since September 2016, achieving strong financial results and record new client growth in a negative rates environment. He has also taken the digital strategy of the business to the next level. Prior to UBS, Blessing spent 15 years on the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank, half of which were as its Chairman.

He succeeds Jürg Zeltner, who will step down at the end of this year and retire from the firm in 2018. Zeltner has been responsible for the Wealth Management business of UBS outside of North America and a member of the group executive board for the past nine years.

He repositioned the business by increasing its leadership in Asia Pacific and with Ultra High Net Worth clients and drove innovation by expanding investment capabilities and rolling out a single technology platform covering the majority of client assets. Zeltner is a veteran of UBS, having served the firm for over 30 years. He joined Swiss Bank Corporation as an apprentice in 1984.