EXCLUSIVE: Change At The Top At UBS's Chief Investment Office

Tom Burroughes

6 May 2016

One of the most high-profile investment figures in wealth management, Bill O’Neill, is retiring at the end of July from his post and will be succeeded as head of investment office, UK by Geoffrey Yu, a lifelong UBS employee, this publication can exclusively report today.

O’Neill will be well-known to readers of this news service because of his commentaries on big investment themes and through his frequent appearances at conferences hosted by the publisher of WealthBriefing. He recently spoke at the Investment Strategy Summit in London, touching on issues such as the UK referendum about EU membership, the US stock market and the state of the Chinese economy. (For more on that event, see here.)

At UBS since February 2013, O’Neill has more than 30 years of experience in investment management, starting his career with the Irish government stockbroker in 1981. He has worked in buy- and sell-side environments, first moving into the wealth management space in 2005. Immediately prior to his move to the Swiss bank, O’Neill was chief investment officer, EMEA, at Merrill Lynch (April 2009 to February 2013) and before that, a strategist at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management (October 2009 to April 2009). Earlier roles included stints at HSBC, JP Morgan, and Barclays Wealth (as the wealth and investment arm of Barclays was formerly called.)

As part of the change, Yu, who takes over O’Neill’s role, will work with the team’s deputy head Caroline Simmons, a strategist who has been with UBS since 2004, and Dean Turner, a cross-asset specialist and economist who joined the bank in 2014. In addition to his new responsibilities, Yu will continue to serve as an ultra-high net worth investment strategist.