McCann Hires Merrill Vets to ‘Renew’ UBS Wealth Management

Robert McCann, the new head of UBS Wealth Management Americas, has called on some long-serving Merrill Lynch executives to help turn around the division.

In an internal memo reviewed by sister publication On Wall Street, McCann said he was forming a ‘Renewal Team’ “to build on what’s good here—and to renew the organization.”

The team will include six existing UBS executives, along with four new hires—Brian Hull, Bob Mulholland, John Brown and Paula Polito—all of whom spent some time in executive positions at Merrill Lynch. Hull was most recently responsible for Merrill’s private bank and investment group. 

Mulholland spent 25 years at Merrill Lynch where he rose to head of Americas for the global private client group before a surprise departure in 2005. He most recently served as chairman and partner of Sound Securities LLC, a broker/dealer for institutional investors and hedge funds.

According to the memo, Brown held leadership positions in trading, prime brokerage, clearing operations, technology and corporate service at Merrill and UBS Securities. Polito previously headed up the marketing departments of Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management.

In the memo, McCann said the team would work with him over the next 100 business days “to define the best strategy to move us forward.”

This follows lackluster third quarter results for the division, which saw outflows of $9.6 billion in client assets for the quarter.

Alois Pirker, research director at Aite Group, said he think McCann is bringing in a so-called “SWAT team” to provide an independent analysis of the business. “These are folks he can rely on, who aren’t attached to the existing business, who can look at all areas of the organization and see what’s working and what isn’t,” he said. Pirker added that the team will need to come up with a plan to move forward, or may decide the existing business is unfixable. “It’s a sign that UBS is seriously evaluating the business.”