UBS Appoints Ermotti as Permanent CEO

UBS (NYSE:UBS) named its interim chief executive officer Sergio Ermotti to the permanent role on Tuesday, responsible for heading up the investment bank’s turnaround and refocusing the company’s strategies.

Ermotti, 51, was appointed interim CEO in September after Oswald Gruebel resigned over a rogue trading scandal that cost UBS $2.3 billion.

The Swiss bank says it picked Ermotti after a comprehensive evaluation process.

The company’s current chairman, Kaspar Villiger, will not run for re-election at the annual investor meeting in May 2012. UBS noted that if Axel Weber is voted to the board, he will immediately become its chairman.

“Now we have stabilized UBS, turned it into one of the world's best capitalized financial institutions, and defined its future strategy,” Villiger said. “I feel it is time to accelerate the planned leadership change at the highest levels of the bank.”

UBS said its board has backed the bank’s strategy, which is making the investment bank more focused, less complex and less capital intensive. Ermotti says the company’s strategy will be centered on its wealth management business and Swiss bank.

Ermotti and his staff will present details of the strategy at UBS’s investor day in New York on Thursday.