The Swiss bank is lifting its technology boss to top management, while replacing its long-standing legal chief.
Zurich-based UBS promoted Mike Dargan to chief of technology and digital and member of an 11-person management team led by CEO Ralph Hamers, effective May 1, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The job replaces that of operating chief, which Sabine Keller-Busse held until she was tapped for UBS' domestic arm last year.
Dargan, who joined UBS from Standard Chartered five years ago, will oversee technology as he currently does as well as UBS' group corporate services. «The new CDIO [chief digital and information office] organization will play a crucial role in further driving technology to become a true differentiator for UBS,» Hamers said.
Legal Headache
The Swiss bank also said it is appointing Barbara Levi (pictured below) as its legal chief from November. Levi replaces Markus Diethelm, UBS' longest-standing top executive and architect of major settlements including Libor rigging (2012) and helping Americans dodge their taxes (2009).
Levi is currently legal chief at commodities firm Rio Tinto, but better known as Swiss drugmaker Novartis' long-standing in-house counsel. UBS' biggest legal headache at the moment is in France, where it is awaiting the outcome of its appeal to a 2019 criminal conviction which carries a nearly $5 billion fine.
Diethelm, who turns 64 this year, will remain a senior advisor to UBS with responsibility for unspecified legacy cases until sometime next year, the bank said.
