UBS CEO Gruebel Gets Personal In "We Will Not Rest" Ad Campaign
August 23 2010 - 4:56AM
Dow Jones News
UBS AG (UBS) Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel addresses clients,
employees and the public in an unusually personal message as part
of "we will not rest," which is the Swiss bank's most extensive
advertising campaign in two years.
"I have often asked myself why; why me; and why return from
retirement, until it became clear to me that I had to do it for the
employees, for the bank who was once our toughest competitor, and
for myself," UBS CEO Gruebel says in the taped message which went
live on UBS's website Sunday.
In an unconventional move, Gruebel, who ran UBS's biggest
domestic rival Credit Suisse Group (CS) until 2007, was enticed out
of retirement in February of last year to run UBS, shortly after
the bank was propped up by a government-led financial aid
package.
Gruebel, who has ushered in UBS's return to profitability,
overseen a dramatic slowing of wealthy client outflows, and
outlined mid-term targets including roughly CHF15 billion in annual
pretax profit, is shown in a variety of settings in the spot,
including walking along Zurich's lake, speaking to an audience
together with Asia head Chi-Won Yoon, and in meetings with close
deputies such as COO Ulrich Koerner and risk head Philip Lofts.
"This is much more than an ad campaign--it is an expression of
our ambition, our stance, and our responsibility, beginning with
me," Gruebel says in the spot.
UBS wasn't immediately available to comment on how much the ad
campaign cost.
-By Katharina Bart, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 43 443 8043;
katharina.bart@dowjones.com