Memo: UBS shakes up tech division to keep pace with data, AI, and the cloud
UBS (UBS) is shaking up the management of its tech division to ensure it keeps pace with the rapidly shifting digital landscape, according to an internal memo seen by Yahoo Finance UK.
UBS told staff this week that the job of running the bank’s tech architecture is being split into two roles: CTO and the new role of chief digital officer.
The Swiss bank has poached JPMorgan’s (JPM) Rick Carey as its new CTO and bagged Deutsche Bank’s (DBK.F) former global innovation lead Elly Hardwick as its first chief digital officer. Hans-Juergen Rieder, who has been UBS’ CTO since 2016, is leaving the bank as part of the shake-up.
Mike Dargan, UBS’ head of group technology, told Yahoo Finance UK: “I’m delighted that Rick Carey and Elly Hardwick are joining our global technology management team.
“Driving our technology strategy forward is crucial as we continue to adopt cloud computing and drive the growth of our platforms and engineering capability.
“Equally, with data, innovation and artificial intelligence shaping our digital future, Elly’s experience and ideas will be a great asset to the newly created Chief Digital Officer role. The roles of the CTO and CDO have never been more important.”
Prior to Deutsche Bank, Hardwick served as CEO of Credit Benchmark, a London-headquartered fintech company.
Here’s the full UBS memo:
Changes to the Group Technology Management Committee (GTMC)
Message from Mike Dargan
The technology landscape is continually shifting – we need to ensure that we keep evolving and driving our standards as we look to the future and the trends we are seeing. To further drive innovation across the Group, together with the business divisions and functions, and to ensure we’re focusing on the right topics, we have decided to split the current Chief Technology Office group into two areas: CTO and a newly created Chief Digital Officer group. To support this, we will make the following changes on the GTMC effective January 2019:
Elly Hardwick will join UBS as Chief Digital Officer and join the GTMC. She will report to me and be based in London. In this role, Elly will be responsible for driving and enabling innovation across the Group, establishing the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence to shape the UBS AI and automation strategy, aligning stakeholders across UBS to create a digital vision that supports the business strategy and engaging with the Data CoE to focus on tools and enablement. The Group Innovation team will report into Elly, with Veronica Lange continuing to play an important role.
Elly joins us from Deutsche Bank, where she led innovation globally and helped drive the digital strategy. Prior to that, she was founder and CEO of Credit Benchmark Ltd., a FinTech start-up. She has also held senior leadership positions at Thomson Reuters, as well as roles at other top tier financial firms, consultancies and government agencies.
Rick Carey will re-join UBS as Group CTO, based in New York. Rick will report directly to me and join the GTMC. Rick will pick up the core CTO responsibilities, including standards, tooling, roadmaps, central CTO services, and alignment across the divisional/functional CTOs. A key focus will be on the coordination and enablement of our agile journey at UBS and helping to drive the Cloud migration roadmap with Paul McEwen and the Cloud Business Office.
Rick returns to us from JP Morgan, bringing nearly thirty years of financial services technology experience. For the last eight years, Rick has led architecture, developer, and platform services functions across multiple organizations within JP Morgan, including infrastructure, retail and corporate areas. During his career, Rick has held senior technology positions at a number of financial services firms, including UBS and Barclays.
Given these changes, Hans-Juergen Rieder has decided to step down from his role and explore other opportunities. I would like to thank Hans-Juergen for his contributions and commitment to Group Technology, both in his current role as CTO and in his previous roles.
Best,
Mike Dargan
Head of Group Technology
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Oscar Williams-Grut covers banking, fintech, and finance for Yahoo Finance UK. Follow him on Twitter at @OscarWGrut.
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