Wall Street’s ‘Mean Girls’ Are At UBS

By admin on June 21, 2012

Robert Wolf, the chairman of UBS Americas, has a very public reputation for being friends with President Obama.

The banker, who vacations, golfs and shoots hoops with the President, is also a prominent fundraiser for Obama’s re-election campaign, the New York Times’ Susanne Craig reports.

Anyway, this close-knit relationship has made Wolf sort of a public face for UBS, and that’s apparently causing some drama with another top banker who actually outranks him, according to the report.

Robert McCann, the chief executive of UBS in the Americas, does not get along with Wolf, sources told the Times.

From The Times:

“This stuff is right out of the movie ‘Mean Girls’ but it involves grown men,” said one person with knowledge of the bickering who declined to be identified commenting on an internal matter.

Mr. McCann’s anger over Mr. Wolf’s public image has been brewing for months. In late March, the executive fired off an e-mail to a number of people at UBS discussing what responsibilities Mr. Wolf should have. Recipients were surprised to find details of Mr. Wolf’s compensation at the bottom of the message.

McCann joined UBS from Merrill Lynch where he worked as Vice Chairman and President of the Global Wealth Management Group from 2003 to 2009. He began working at Merrill back in 1982 having various roles and positions there, according to his bio.

In 2009, he was appointed CEO of Wealth Management Americas at UBS. He has served as CEO of UBS Group Americas since December 2011.

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