Julius BärGruppe AG announced a new regional organizational structure andmade changes in its management, which are part of the bank's efforts tostrengthen client orientation and increase efficiency.

The Swiss bank named Nic Dreckmann COO, effective Aug. 1.Dreckmann, who is currently responsible for the bank's technologytransformation, will replace Gregory Gatesman, who will leave the group toreturn to the U.S.

Dreckmann will join Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd.'s executive board as ofAug. 1 and will take Gatesman's place on the group executive board with effectfrom Jan. 1, 2017.

Julius Bär will also realign its regional setup as of Sept.1, reducing the region count by one. The bank's intermediaries business will beallocated to the new regional setup and largely integrated into the Swissregion, which also includes the global custody business.

The Swiss region will be led by Gian Rossi, currently headof Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Barend Fruithof, who is head ofSwitzerland and of global custody and a member of the executive board, willleave Julius Bär because of "differing views of the functional changes inthe context" of the new regional alignment.

The new Europe region, which excludes Central and EasternEurope, including Israel, will be led by Yves Robert-Charrue, who is currentlyin charge of the intermediaries business. A new emerging markets region will berun by Rémy Bersier, who will be based in Dubai. Bersier is currently head ofSouthern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The bank's investment solutions group will be to advisory solutionsand focus on "delivering the enhanced Julius Bär client experience."The division will be led by Philipp Rickenbacher, currently head of structuredproducts, who will assume his new role and become an executive board memberAug. 1.

Executive board member Giovanni Flury, who has been with theSwiss lender for 10 years, will retire for age reasons at the end of 2016.