Personality of the Year: Diana Celotto, UBS

Diana Celotto stands at the forefront of a transformative era in wealth management and private markets. With over two decades of experience—most of it at UBS Wealth Management, which she joined in 2008. She co-leads the global private equity business at UBS Unified Global Alternatives, a powerhouse that brings together the firm’s wealth and asset management capabilities in private markets. UGA has approximately $300 billion of invested assets, supported by a 500-strong team across innovation, structuring, investments, and client relations.

Celotto’s journey into finance was rooted in a passion for economics. After university, she began her career as an equity portfolio manager with Eden Financial. “I really enjoyed listening to clients and understanding what they were looking for. A few years later, in 2007, I was contacted about a junior role in the private markets team at UBS Wealth Management. It was a new industry for me to get my arms around,” says Celotto.

Attracted by the UBS brand and the vision of two pioneering colleagues, Martin Dunnett and Simon Jennings, Celotto joined just as the global financial crisis was unfolding. “I officially joined in early 2008, before Lehman Brothers collapsed. But you learn the most during difficult markets, when everything is not moving up and to the right! I learned that there were parts of the private equity industry - for example, distressed debt, special situations, secondaries - that could benefit in such an environment,” she says.

At that time, private equity was still largely the preserve of institutional investor. The UBS wealth management team faced the dual challenge of educating both general partners (GPs) about the value of including wealth clients as investors in their funds and wealth clients about the benefits of private markets. “We wore through a lot of shoe leather visiting our GPs’ offices. It wasn't always easy but we slowly gained traction on both sides and brought this market together. Initially we offered single manager funds. Over the years we launched in house multi-manager solutions. We have a co-investment platform, a secondaries platform and we've been at the forefront of evergreen open-ended innovation in recent years,” explains Celotto.

While thriving on the opportunity to engage with the world’s best GPs and working with UBS’s clients to deliver best-in-class private markets solutions, Diana embraces the culture of innovation that UBS has built over the years to remain at the forefront of the industry. This includes a willingness to tackle complexity.

“We put the clients at the centre of everything we do. That’s key when you're designing something from start to execution. Innovation takes grit and determination. It's easy to be a follower in this market,” comments Celotto, adding that the evergreen open-ended fund structure has broadened the aperture of who UBS can reach out to. 

She highlights how these structures simplify operational burdens and broaden access for both retail and institutional clients by removing the complexity of managing NAVs, capital calls, distributions etc:

“What’s interesting is that evergreens aren’t just appealing to smaller, retail clients. Institutional investors find them operationally easier to manage within their portfolio. It’s been surprising to see just how attractive these evergreen structures have been for many types of clients.”

In her view, the next wave of innovation is likely to focus on more thematic (i.e. technology, healthcare) and strategy-specific offerings (i.e. growth equity, secondaries) beyond diversified buyout funds that have dominated to date.

“A lot of banks are also thinking about their discretionary pools of capital. It's often been more challenging to invest into discretionary programs using closed-ended funds. People are looking to see whether evergreen structures might help solve that going forward.

The penetration rate of private wealth in private markets continues to rise but there is still significant room for growth. Indeed, the UBS Chief Investment Office now recommends that clients allocate up to 20% of their portfolios to private markets.

UGA aims to offer as much of an institutional style, best-in-class portfolio, as possible for its clients.

“It’s a completely different world from when I first started in the industry. Managers like Blackstone, KKR, Apollo…they recognise private wealth is a really interesting investor type. It's one that adds diversity to their LP base. As one of the largest global investors in private markets, the scale that we bring gives us a seat at the innovation table to help drive innovation forward and build products with the world’s leading GPs,” explains Celotto.

Winning the IPEM award is, she insists, a reflection of the collective achievements of her team and partners:

“These things are always a team effort. You are part of an ecosystem so it's very nice to be recognised as someone who has done a lot for the wealth management industry in private markets. I’m very grateful for what the IPEM team has done for the industry and thankful for all the clients and partners we work with. Without them I wouldn't be in a position to win this award.”

With her blend of client empathy, strategic vision, and relentless drive for innovation, Diana Celotto is not just shaping the future of UBS Unified Global Alternatives - she is helping redefine the role of private markets in wealth management for years to come.