Blake Moore Set to Depart UBS Asset Management Division

Blake Moore, head of UBS Asset Management’s Americas business, is leaving the firm early next year but will remain an advisor to the division until early 2017, a UBS spokesman confirmed to Institutional Investor.

Moore has only been on the job since March 2015, when he took over from Shawn Lytle, who left to join Macquarie Group’s Delaware Investments as president.

Before UBS, Moore served as head of distribution at Mackenzie Investments in Canada and previously worked in retail distribution for Allianz Global Investors in the U.S. Moore also served on various executive committees at UBS, including UBS Americas and global asset management. He began his industry career at Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management. Before joining the financial services industry, Blake played professional football for the Cincinnati Bengals and the Green Bay Packers.

UBS has been cutting costs amid regulatory scrutiny from Swiss authorities and other pressures. In January, Dawn Fitzpatrick, who headed UBS’s hedge fund group O’Connor, took over global equities and multi-asset capabilities as well. Since the changes, the asset management arm has lost a number of key executives, including Phil Casparius, head of retail distribution for the Americas, who left UBS in June to join John Hancock Investments; Curt Custard, the head of global investment solutions, who also left in June; and Ana-Ibis Seebrath, head of human resources in asset management, who left earlier this year and is now leading human resources for J.P. Morgan’s asset management and global operations. Bob McGowan, head of third-party distribution and intermediary distribution, also left in August.