UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, who recently turned 64, will reach retirement age in a year and has expressed his intention to hand over his position to a younger successor by early 2027. As part of his responsibilities, Ermotti is focused on finding and developing viable internal candidates to take over his role, including Iqbal Khan, Sabine Keller-Busse, and Beatriz Martin Jimenez. However, there are concerns about the bank’s decision to exclude external candidates from the succession planning process.
Industry insiders have expressed skepticism about UBS’s decision, with headhunter Jonas Neff believing that limiting the search to internal candidates may limit the bank’s options and could be an unnecessary move. The exclusive focus on internal candidates could also be seen as a slowing factor, as seen in the case of Julius Bär’s search for a new CEO.
The search for a successor to Julius Bär’s former CEO has proven to be challenging, with the bank focusing solely on external candidates. It is expected that a successor will be announced at the latest by the presentation of the bank’s half-year results in July. The approach taken by both UBS and Julius Bär raises questions about the effectiveness of exclusively considering internal or external candidates in leadership succession planning.