ON THE MOVE-UBS Wealth Americas promotes Locicero, Meraz
NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - Todd Locicero and Ron Meraz have been promoted from complex directors to regional directors at UBS Wealth Management Americas, according to an internal memo distributed on Monday. Both had been based in California.
Locicero, who joined the Swiss bank company's U.S. broker-dealer in 2010 from Morgan Stanley to run its private wealth business for wealthy individuals in Los Angeles, is relocating to New York City to become Metro regional director.
As director of a "complex" - a group of branches in a concentrated geographic area - in Los Angeles, Locicero doubled the size of the business, according to a staff memo signed by eastern U.S. wealth management head Jason Chandler, western U.S. head Bill Carroll and private wealth management head John Mathews.
Locicero reported directly to Chandler when he first joined UBS.
Meraz, complex director of Orange County since 2008, has been named southwestern regional director. He joined UBS from Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, where he ran Merrill's office of diversity and also worked as a broker and complex director.
Both appointments are effective immediately, the memo said.
Locicero is replacing Ron Ferrelli, who is retiring from the firm, a spokesman wrote in an email. Randy Grossblatt, who had been southwest regional director, is stepping down to resume his position as a broker, the spokesman said.
UBS Wealth Americas head Robert McCann was a longtime Merrill executive when he jumped to UBS in the heart of the financial crisis. Since his arrival in 2009, he has slashed the brokerage force from more than 10,000 to about 7,000 advisers and made the business profitable by focusing primarily on serving wealthy clients.
(Reporting by Jed Horowitz; Editing by Christian Plumb)
