Rosemary Berkery, former general counsel at Merrill Lynch, has agreed to join UBS Wealth Management Americas as vice chairman next month, WealthBriefing can confirm.

Ms Berkery, who spent 19 of her 25-year career at Merrill in its legal department, also worked in executive positions at the company, heading the marketing and solutions group within Merrill’s private client business as well as the firm's research unit. She left when Merrill was acquired by Bank of America in January 2009.

A number of Merrill Lynch executives have joined the Swiss-based banking and wealth management group since last October, when Robert McCann, a former Merrill Lynch manager, was named CEO of UBS Wealth Management Americas.

“Rosemary is a talented executive with a strong following of trusted relationships across the global financial services community,” said Mr McCann, according to an internal statement cited by the Financial Times. “She has broad and deep expertise in our industry, having held leadership positions in legal and compliance, wealth management, investment banking, marketing and securities research”.