For all its travails as a state, California and its wealth creation engines of entertainment, tech, agriculture and other sectors are big drivers of wealth, attracting the likes of UBS and its peers.

The US wealth business of UBS has appointed two new market directors in the San Diego region.

DeAnne Steele (pictured below) will lead the Carmel Valley and Rancho Bernardo offices, and George Towers III (pictured below) will lead the La Jolla and Downtown San Diego offices, UBS said in a statement yesterday.

DeAnne Steele
 

George Towers 

Steele has had a career spanning brokerage, fiduciary, and private banking platforms. She most recently led financial advisors across multiple offices for Merrill Lynch in Texas and California. Prior to that, she served in various strategy-focused roles at Bank of America Private Bank. Steele holds an MBA in finance from UCLA Anderson and dual undergraduate degrees in English and political science from UCLA. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.

Towers will be stepping into his role as market director after serving as associate market executive for the Pacific Desert Market at UBS. Towers earned his degree in finance and economics from the University of Denver and holds the Accredited Wealth Management Advisor (AWMA) designation.

The Pacific Desert market head for UBS is Justin Frame, whom FWR interviewed four years ago to learn about the Swiss bank's California strategy.