Robert Wolf, chairman and chief executive of UBS Group Americas and president of UBS Investment Bank, said he missed out on becoming head of the Swiss firm because cultural differences mean management view him as “little more than a cowboy.”

During a Wharton Leadership Lecture published on the business school's website this week, Wolf said: "I'm a pretty vocal guy, and I work for an international firm. There were times particularly [during the financial crisis] I thought [UBS] should change in certain ways … Maybe I should have approached the management differently, knowing that there is a cultural difference. I'm viewed a little more as a cowboy."