UBS Senior Banker Sam Kendall Is Leaving Swiss Firm

(Bloomberg) -- Sam Kendall, a senior UBS Group AG executive who until recently oversaw its investment-banking arm in the Americas, is leaving the firm to pursue other interests, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Erica Chase, a representative for the bank, declined to comment.

A UBS employee for more than two decades, Kendall last year assumed oversight of the firm’s U.S. underwriting and advisory businesses, replacing Joe Reece, who left over disagreements in strategy with Andrea Orcel, then head of the investment bank. Kendall held the role until last month, when UBS made sweeping changes to its investment bank that included the promotions of Ros L’Esperance and Javier Oficialdegui. In the shuffle, Kendall was named to a new role: head of strategic initiatives within global banking.

This summer, Kendall sent an annual reading list to employees of UBS’s investment bank, with suggestions including the novel “Breathe In, Cash Out” and E.B. White’s children’s book “Charlotte’s Web.” The list was “aimed at helping everyone prepare themselves for changes ahead, whether they are within our industry or the industries that our clients operate in,” according to a note to staffers.

Kendall, who joined UBS in Australia in 1996, has held other positions at the company, including head of investment banking in the Asia-Pacific region and global head of equity capital markets. Three years ago, he took all his paternity leave and went public with the decision in the hopes of having a trickle-down effect, he told the Wall Street Journal at the time.

--With assistance from Sonali Basak.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, David Scheer

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