UBS has appointed Sylvia Coutinho as CEO of UBS Group Brazil effective 24 June 2013.
She will be responsible for further strengthening the firm’s presence in Brazil and overseeing the firm’s strategy to deliver its integrated resources – including UBS Brasil Corretora, former Link Investimentos – to its private, corporate and institutional clients in the country. Current UBS Group Brazil CEO Lywal Salles will retire.
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In this move, Coutinho will become the first woman to be a CEO of a Brazilian business for an international bank.
On the appointment, UBS Group Americas CEO Robert J. McCann remarked: "Sylvia’s deep knowledge of Brazil, combined with her industry expertise, will be invaluable to helping UBS reach our full potential in the country. We are confident she is the leader to help us in the next stage of building a strong Brazil franchise, particularly as the market’s solid, growing economy and expanding wealth base mark it as a strong opportunity for all of UBS’s business areas. We thank Lywal for his leadership over the past two and a half years, helping UBS navigate a complex, dynamic economic environment in the country especially through the successful acquisition of Link, one of Brazil’s leading equity brokerage firms."
Sylvia B. Coutinho joins UBS from HSBC, where she served most recently as Head of Retail Banking & Wealth Management for Latin America and Asset Management for the Americas. With a number of countries under her supervision, and more than 30,000 persons, she rationalize HSBC’s footprint in the region, with significant strides in improving productivity, enhancing profitability and aligning the region with HSBC’s global priorities.
Prior to that, Coutinho held various roles at HSBC, including Northern Latin America and Brazil Group Head in New York; Executive Director for HSBC Bank Brazil, where she was responsible for Asset Management, Private Banking and Securities Services; Head of Wealth Management; and CEO of Asset Management, Americas & Head of Emerging Markets Strategy. She began her career at Citibank in its Management Trainee Program, where she had a long career, working in various areas in Brazil and overseas, in Corporate and Commercial Banking, Operations and Retail Banking, Technology, as well as coordinating the area of Private Banking for Brazil.
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By GlobalDataSylvia B. Coutinho earned her MBA from Columbia University in New York, a postgraduate course in Economics and a B.Sc in Engineering both from the University of São Paulo.
