MOVES - UBS picks Youngwood to follow Gardner

2 min read
Americas, EMEA, Asia
Christopher Spink

UBS has appointed Sarah Youngwood as chief financial officer when Kirt Gardner steps down from the role in May after six years.

Youngwood is chief financial officer of JP Morgan’s consumer and community division. She will join the Swiss bank at the beginning of March and work with Gardner before he leaves.

Youngwood has been in her current role since 2016 and last year was also put in charge of finance for the group’s technology function and its diversity and inclusion team. Before 2016 she was head of investor relations for four years after a 14-year spell in the financial institutions group in the investment bank in Paris, London and New York.

Gardner joined UBS from Citigroup in 2013 as chief financial officer for the wealth management division. At Citi he had been CFO and head of strategy in its global transaction services division as well as head of strategy for its corporate and institutional and consumer bank.

Later this month UBS will hear the outcome of an appeal in French courts against a ruling that it helped clients evade taxes, which could uphold a financial penalty of up to €3.2bn.

That is lower than the €4.5bn UBS was originally fined, after a negotiation with the French authorities. UBS could appeal the decision in the French Supreme Court. It has only provisioned €450m against the case.

In its latest results the group reported its highest quarterly profit for eight years, leading to US$5.7bn in excess capital at the end of September – more than enough to cover any fine.

Chief executive Ralph Hamers said he planned to give a update on his strategy on February 1, alongside full-year results.

Speaking of Youngwood’s appointment, Hamers said: “With her strong track record, in-depth finance expertise, and experience across various banking areas, Sarah is ideally suited to lead our finance function into the future.”