New chairman nominated at UBS

by Richard Kilner

Story link: New chairman nominated at UBS

Peter Kurer, chairman of the UBS Board of Directors, has indicated that he will not be standing for re-election.

Instead, Kaspar Villiger has been nominated as a potential successor to Kurer.

Kurer explained that he had achieved, through working with the Board of Directors and Group Executive Board, the majority of the targets he had aimed at when first elected one year ago.

Vice chairman Sergio Marchionne has paid tribute to the outgoing chairman, stating that Kurer deserves both credit and recognition for putting UBS back on the right track after recent difficulties caused by the worldwide financial crisis.

His proposed replacement, Kaspar Villiger, served on the Swiss Federal Council for over 10 years, including an eight year stint as Finance Minister.

Should he be confirmed as the new chairman it would be the second very senior change to personnel in less than a week.

On 26 February UBS announced its CEO, Marcel Rohner, had resigned and was being replaced with immediate effect by Oswald J. Grübel.