Oppenheimer hires UBS manager Douglas Damrow

* Damrow to expand Oppenheimer business in Chicago

* Damrow previously managed branches in Chicago for UBS

NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - Oppenheimer & Co has hired former UBS Wealth Management Americas manager Douglas Damrow to help expand its brokerage business in the Chicago area.

Damrow will be the assistant manager of the company's only wealth management office in Chicago and will lead the effort to open other branches in the area, said an Oppenheimer spokesman. He declined to say how many branches Oppenheimer & Co, a unit of Oppenheimer Holdings (OPY.N), intends to open.

Damrow worked at UBS (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) for almost nine years and had been a complex director in the Chicago area, overseeing a number of wealth management offices, according to a source familiar with his business.

Damrow, a 30-year veteran of the wealth management business, according to filings from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, was succeeded in that UBS post by Kim Jenson earlier this year.

Jenson was a member of new marketing chief Paula Polito's team in charge of communications to advisers. Prior to that she was the head of UBS's Minneapolis offices. (Reporting by Helen Kearney; editing by John Wallace)