The departure of Investment Bank Chief Andrea Orcel is a blow for UBS, where the Italian has successfully ramped down risk as part of CEO Sergio Ermotti's focus on private banking.What's next.
European dealmaker Andrea Orcel is leaving UBS at the end of this month – and heading for Madrid, where he will run Spanish banking group Santander, the two firms said in parallel media releases on Tuesday evening.
He will be replaced by Piero Novelli (pictured above), a fellow European dealmaking heavyweight to Orcel, and Robert Karofsky (pictured below), who runs UBS' equities arm.
The move is also bittersweet for UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, who had relied heavily on Orcel – the two share Italian as their native tongue. «I want to personally thank Andrea for the outstanding work he did while at UBS. We worked together very well and, both as a friend and professionally, I congratulate him on his new appointment and wish him all the best,» he said.
Orcel's move from London to Spain also adds a twist to the race to succeed Ermotti, who is in his seventh year running UBS. Ermotti plans to remain through 2022, together with Chairman Axel Weber, according to the latter man.
