• Published on 6 March 2017
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UBS appoints Andreas Koester as CIO for wealth management business

UBS has appointed one of its portfolio managers as chief investment officer of global asset allocation for its wealth management business.

Andreas Koester, who was head of asset allocation and currency at UBS Asset Management, has moved to the wealth management business as head chief investment officer of global asset allocation.

Alongside Citywire A-rated Jonathan Davies, Koester managed the UBS Dynamic Alpha fund, the UBS Global Allocation fund and the MFS Alternative Strategies fund, which they subadvised, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

He now reports to Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management.

Davies has taken over Koester’s responsibilities as head of asset allocation at UBS Asset Management on an interim basis, according to a spokeswoman for the firm.

On the $180.4 million UBS Dynamic Alpha fund and the $367.0 million MFS Global Alternative Strategy fund, the duo was replaced by Nathan Shetty and Jose Ignacio Andres.

Shetty has been with UBS since 2014 and before that had been head of the investment solutions group and a portfolio manager at Mesirow Financial.

Andres has been with UBS since 2008. Prior to joining UBS, he was a space scientist with the European Space Agency.

The $355.8 million UBS Global Allocation fund saw Gian Plebani come on to join existing manager Phillip Brides.

Plebani has been with UBS Wealth Management since 2013 and UBS Asset Management since 2014.

Separately, UBS Asset Management will welcome Michael Ho on March 27, as chief investment officer of investment solutions.

It is a newly created role in which he will set the overall investment strategy for investment solutions and oversee asset allocation, custom building blocks and oversee portfolio management teams.

He joins from State Street Global Advisors, where he was chief investment officer of alternatives, global macro and active emerging markets.

Prior to joining State Street in 2011, he was chief investment officer for Mellon Capital Management, where he oversaw investment strategy for investment solutions, in addition to other responsibilities.

At the end of February, UBS Wealth Management Americas appointed internal candidate, Joseph Aniano, as head of investment manager research.

He works alongside Glenn Regan, head of managed solutions and portfolio guidance, and Ray Joseph, head of portfolio model management, who oversaw the hiring process

Last year UBS merged its manager research, model portfolio and investment teams into one unit as part of a major reorganization.

The combined unit, called managed solutions and portfolio guidance, is led by Regan, who joined UBS last March from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker from Citywireamericas.com