Barclays Wealth has appointed Stefanie Drews to the newly created position of head of ultra high net worth, UK and EMEA, as it continues to build out this business segment.

Drews joins the firm from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where she worked for 13 years, latterly as managing director in the EMEA region. In her new role at Barclays Wealth, which she is due to take up in the autumn, Drews will be responsible for further developing the UHNW team, which works across Barclays’ corporate, investment banking and wealth management businesses.

Previously the UHNW team was overseen by David Semaya, head of UK & Ireland private banking, and Emmanuel Fievet, head of international private banking, EMEA. Moving forward Drews will report jointly to Semaya and Fievet.

"While the private bank has always looked after UHNW clients as part of its broader private wealth management business, over the last 18 months it has been building up a dedicated team and infrastructure to service UHNW clients and this appointment is the latest step in that process," a spokesperson for the firm told WealthBriefing.

In the ultra high net worth space the bank sees its strength as the ability to offer linkages with Barclays Capital and Barclays Corporate: “That’s what we see as our differentiator in the ultra high net worth space,” said the spokesperson.

The ultra high net worth universe is expected to grow faster than other wealth management business areas over coming years, according to Ledbury Research, and other banks such as Credit Suisse and Citi Private Bank are also seeing this opportunity and looking to position themselves in this space.

“This is a very significant appointment, particularly in the context of our growth plans over the course of the next five years.  Our aim is to position Barclays Wealth as the provider of choice for the UHNW client group,” said Thomas Kalaris, chief executive of Barclays Wealth.