By John Revill
ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS has nominated Australian financial executive Gail Kelly to its board, the Swiss bank said on Friday, highlighting her experience of navigating banking mergers.
The appointment could prove helpful to UBS, which is currently integrating Credit Suisse following its takeover last year, and also support its growth plans in the Asia-Pacific.
Kelly, who was a senior global adviser to UBS from 2016 to 2023, was previously chief executive at St George Bank and Westpac Bank Corporation in Australia.
During her tenure as CEO, she navigated the merger of the two banks in 2008, the largest financial services merger in Australia, UBS said.
In her time at St George Bank, the lender more than doubled its assets to more than A$100 billion ($67 billion) and doubled profit to above A$1 billion.
At the time of her retirement in February 2015, the Westpac Group was Australia's second largest bank and the 12th largest bank in the world, in terms of market capitalisation.
"As one of the most influential voices in the Asia Pacific financial industry and an acknowledged leader, Gail has an outstanding reputation and is recognized as an excellent bank CEO who successfully navigated a merger," said UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher in a statement.
Her merger experience could help UBS, which completed the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse in June, as it integrates the two banks and organise a banking giant that oversees more than $5 trillion in assets.
The lender has been working to recover from the exodus of client funds from Credit Suisse, while also combining two workforces and corporate cultures.
UBS has said it will axe a number of jobs, including 3,000 in Switzerland alone, to achieve cost savings.
Kelly's experience in the Asia-Pacific region is also likely to have been attractive to UBS, which has targeted the area as one of its growth drivers in future years.
The announcement is the latest change at UBS, where activist investor Cevian took a 1.3% stake in December. Cevian said at the time it was not seeking a board seat, and Kelly is not linked to Cevian.
UBS also said on Friday that its longest serving director had decided to stand down after eight years on the board.
Dieter Wemmer will not stand for re-election at its shareholder meeting on April 24. He joined the UBS board in 2016.
($1 = 1.4928 Australian dollars)