Peter Wuffli, 49, has been a respected chief executive at UBS since 2003.

The former McKinsey consultant and freelance economics reporter claimed the top job after being named president of the board in December 2001.

Although his background lay in managing money — Mr Wuffli ran UBS Asset Management from 1999 until the end of 2001 — he will be remembered for his contribution to the investment bank.

With the backing of Marcel Ospel, the charismatic chairman, during his tenure, Mr Wuffli sanctioned heavy investment in staff and resources and declared his ambition to become a top-five international mergers and acquisitions adviser.

At present UBS is No 1 in the M&A league tables in the UK, Europe and Asia but trails in the US, which is dominated by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.

He also poured capital into the private bank and maintained UBS's dominance of the wealth management market.

But question marks about growth refused to go away and UBS's share price began to languish.

Messrs Wuffli and Ospel suffered a setback when UBS was forced to shut its hedge fund, Dillon Read Capital Management.

Mr Ospel had thrown his weight behind John Costas, the former head of investment banking, who was sidelined after the closure.

Mike Hutchins, the president of the hedge fund unit, left the bank.

Mr Wuffli, an economics and social sciences graduate, reported for the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung until 1984, when he left journalism to join McKinsey as a management consultant.

By 1990, he had become a partner.

By 1994, he had moved into banking, becoming finance director at Swiss Bank Corporation until 1998, when the transforming series of mergers and acqusitions — SBC, Warburg, Dillon Read and Union Bank of Switzerland — began that finally created UBS.

Before taking charge of asset management, Mr Wuffli spent 1998 to 1999 as finance director for UBS.

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