By Andrew Welsch

UBS hired a JPMorgan Chase executive to serve as head of workplace wealth solutions, a U.S. unit that the Swiss bank is aiming to expand as part of a broader effort to grow its wealth management business in the U.S.

Patricia McCarthy, who worked at JPMorgan as global head of product and innovation for wealth management solutions, will join UBS on May 12, according to an internal UBS memo sent to employees from Mike Camacho and seen by Barron's. McCarthy worked at JPMorgan for three years. Prior to JPMorgan, she worked in private wealth at Goldman Sachs, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Donald Giovacchini, who has been managing the workplace wealth group at UBS for the past year, will become head of field strategy and corporate solutions for the unit, according to Camacho's memo. In that role, he will serve as UBS advisors' primary point of contact.

McCarthy will also work in close collaboration with Ogden Hammond, head of business development within UBS' Global Wealth Management Americas division, according to the memo. Hammond oversees lead generation for UBS financial advisors.

McCarthy's addition comes a week after UBS said it would switch software providers for its stock plan administration business to insightsoftware from Morgan Stanley.

Wealth management companies are seeking to grow their businesses and find new clients, and to do so some are turning toward the workplace, where they can serve other companies with regard to their retirement, equity, and benefit plans. The hope is that some of those plan participants will seek out wealth management services.

UBS' workplace wealth group serves three million equity and retirement plan participants, and more than $180 billion in assets. Camacho's memo says UBS has opportunities "to deepen our relationship with participants and better serve their broader wealth management needs." UBS is one of the world's largest wealth management companies. Its Americas unit, which includes Canada and Latin America, had nearly $2.1 trillion in assets and about 5,900 advisors at the end of the first quarter.

In a February interview with Barron's, Rob Karofsky, president of UBS Americas and co-president of global wealth management, said the company wants to achieve greater scale in the U.S., and pointed to "feeder channels" within its workplace wealth business as an avenue for growth.

A representative for JPMorgan declined to comment on McCarthy's departure.

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

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May 06, 2025 15:04 ET (19:04 GMT)

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