Private Banking Executive Moves | Q2 2023

Bank Syz

Bank Syz has recruited Gabriel Aractingi to head the bank’s Middle East operations with a focus on expansion in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey, joining as an equity partner.

Banque Cramer

After just over a year as head of Banque Cramer, Erich Pfister is moving on again. He is on "gardening leave" until November and has been released from his duties at the Geneva-based private bank.

Barclays

The Swiss branch of Barclays Bank has appointed Henry Fischel-Bock as new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior to joining, Fischel-Bock was a member of the board of directors of Lombard Odier, where he also served as CEO. After 20 years in office, current Chairman William Oullin will continue to work closely with Fischel-Bock on the board of directors and contribute to the bank's strategy as an advisor.

Bitcoin Suisse

Philipp Roesler, the former leader of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), who also served as a finance minister and vice chancellor under Angela Merkel, is joining Bitcoin Suisse’s board of directors.
Roger Studer is leaving the board after a three-year term to concentrate on various other mandates. Studer headed investment banking at Zurich-based Vontobel and led a financing round for Bitcoin Suisse as an investor in 2020, before becoming an entrepreneur.

BNP Paribas

French financial group BNP Paribas appoints Enna Pariset as CEO of BNP Paribas Suisse effective July 1st. She also will continue to lead the Corporate and Institutional Banking business for Switzerland.

Credit Suisse

Roman Reichelt, was relieved of the position as Global Head of Marketing at the end of April. He joined the Bank in January 2019.
The longtime head of Credit Suisse's wealthiest clients business, Felix Baumgartner, stepped down from his role at the end of April. In the future, he will become Chairman of Premium Clients Switzerland. Roger Weibel, Baumgartner’s successor, started his role as Head of Premium Clients in May. Before, he was responsible for leading the Private Institutional Clients.
Burkhard Varnholt became the CIO for Credit Suisse on May 8, and also serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He replaces Michael Strobaek who was presented as Lombard Odier’s new CIO.
Philipp Wehle, CFO of the Global Wealth Management division and Head of Client Segment Management, is leaving Credit Suisse. From June 2023, Jürg Zuberbühler, who previously has been Head of WM Divisional Finance, took over Wehle's role ad interim.
Gerold Reiser, Head of Wealth Management for Central Europe at Credit Suisse, is leaving the firm. Credit Suisse is not appointing Reiser’s replacement but client coverage will be ensured going forward. Reiser is joining Rothschild & Co together with six other people.
Elena Hainaut-Tschopp, Head of High-Net-Worth Individuals for Geneva at Credit Suisse, has left the firm. She makes a flying switch to Lombard Odier.
UBS announced its nominations for the board of directors for certain of its Credit Suisse entities, with UBS Vice-Chairman Lukas Gaehwiler being named Chairman of the Board of Credit Suisse.
Jeremy Anderson, a non-executive member of the UBS board since 2018, will serve with Credit Suisse board member Christian Gellerstad as vice-chairs.
Simon Grimwood becomes the new Head of Finance at Credit Suisse. Previously, he was Head of Tax and Finance Change.
Isabelle Hennebelle joins the executive board as Head of Credit Suisse Operations, as does Claude Honegger as Head of Technology.

Deutsche Bank

The executive board of Deutsche Bank is slimming down after two departures. One of vice-chair Karl von Rohr, who is responsible for the private client bank, asset management and the regions of Germany and Europe and will depart in the fall. Christiana Riley has left the bank already in May, where she was responsible for the Americas business. She is taking up a challenge outside Deutsche Bank. Claudio de Sanctis will take over von Rohr’s role as Head of the Private Clients Bank in November at latest.

HSBC Private Bank

Yannick Hausmann replaces Andreas von Planta as non-executive Chairman of the Board. Hausmann has been on the board of HSBC Private Bank since September 2022 and will oversee the strategic direction of HSBC's Swiss private bank and assume an entrepreneurial leadership role within it.

Julius Baer

Julius Baer appointed Marcel Suhner as head of intermediaries for German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland, effective immediately. He joined the bank in 2015 and steps now into a vacancy created by the departure of Michel Yigit.

Leonteq

Leonteq has appointed Antoine Boublil as CFO and member of the Executive Board as of January 1st 2024. With this appointment, Leonteq has found a successor for Marco Amato, whose resignation as of the end of August 2023 was announced in February. Boublil was previously CFO of Credit Suisse Switzerland.

LGT Bank

LGT Bank Switzerland is appointing Michel Yigit as a member of the executive board and Head of External Asset Managers Switzerland, starting November 1st. Previously, Yigit held various management positions at Julius Baer.

Bank Linth (Subsidiary of LLB)

David Sarasin is leaving the company to pursue a new career. Sarasin will continue to oversee the strategic development until the end of the year to ensure continuity.

Lombard Odier

Lombard Odier has appointed Michael Strobaek as CIO. He will take over the position from Stéphane Monier as of November 1^st. Strobaek thus heads the Investment Solutions department worldwide and chairs the Private Clients Investment Committee. He reports to Frédéric Rochat, Managing Partner and Co-Head of the Private Clients Department at the Geneva-based private bank.

Pictet Private Bank

Pictet Group is appointing Raymond Sagayam as its 47th managing partner in the group's 218-year history starting January of next year. Sagayam, a British national of Malaysian parentage, joined Pictet Asset Management in 2010.

Post Finance

Maria Teresa Vacalli was formally elected to the board of directors effective April 7th. Vacalli was a member of the board of directors of Swiss Post since May 2022.

SIX

Three long-serving board members of Swiss exchange operator SIX are stepping down, with Herbert Scheidt, Lorenz von Habsburg-Lothringen, and Juerg Gutzwiller leaving. Newly elected as successors to four-year terms were Andreas Utermann, Sven Holstenson, and Roger Reist. The other members of the SIX Board of Directors were confirmed and will remain in their positions for the duration of their terms.

Société Générale

Société Générale Private Banking Switzerland (SGPBS) has appointed Maxime Sabiaux as Deputy CEO and COO and Valérie Bokobza as Head of Wealth Management Solutions by April 1st. Both are based in Geneva and report to the unit’s CEO Franck Bonin.

Swiss Bankers Association (SBA / SBVg)

The board of directors of the Swiss Bankers Association unanimously appoints Roman Studer as CEO effective August 1^st, replacing August Benz who took over on an interim basis from Joerg Gasser in January.

UBS

UBS announced, due to the planned acquisition of Credit Suisse, Christian Bluhm will retain his position as Group CRO until further notice. This will delay the handover to Damian Vogel, which was originally planned for the beginning of May 2023. In the newly created role of Group Risk Control Head of Integration, Vogel will focus on leading integration activities related to risk control as well as defining the best possible structure for the combined Group Risk Control unit.
At the end of last year, Yves-Alain Sommerhalder left Credit Suisse. Now with UBS, he is in charge of selecting who will stay and who will go in Credit Suisse's wealth management unit. He was recruited by the head of UBS's wealth management division Iqbal Khan. In his role at UBS, Sommerhalder will assess the wealth management business of his former employer.
Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Koerner becomes a member of the UBS Group's executive board.
Within the functional structure, UBS announced that Sarah Youngwood will be departing. Todd Tuckner is appointed Group CFO and becomes a member of the group executive board with immediate effect and takes on the role of CFO at the close of the acquisition, succeeding Youngwood.
Michelle Bereaux will be Group Integration Officer.
Mike Dargan will be Group's Chief Operations and Technology Officer.
Stefan Seiler will be the Group Head of Human Resources and Corporate Services
Beatriz Martin Jimenez becomes President for the EMEA region.
Jin Yee Young is to become co-head of wealth management for Asia at UBS, after Deutsche Bank hired her not long ago as Head of Asia Pacific for International Private Banking. Young replaces August Hatecke, one of the co-heads of Asia, who is moving to Zurich to take over the Head of Wealth Management Switzerland role from Anton Simonet.
Former Credit Suisse technology chief Joanne Hannaford becomes head of technology for UBS's US Wealth Management unit, and former board member David Wildermuth has been named CRO for UBS's Americas division and the combined US legal units. Michael Ebert, former co-Head of Credit Suisse trading, will head the Americas investment bank and serve as head of the entire Credit Suisse business within the UBS investment bank.
Among the prominent departures from former Credit Suisse management are CFO Dixit Joshi, and David Miller, Co-Head of the investment bank. Also leaving the combined firm are Chief Legal Officer Markus Diethelm, Asia head Edwin Low and Ken Pang, Co-Head of markets.
The supervisory board of UBS Europe has named Tobias Vogel as CEO. He will start his new job on July 1st and replaces Christl Novakovic, who will focus on her role as head of global wealth management EMEA.
Daniele Brupbacher became Chief Strategy Officer at the new UBS on July 1st.

Vontobel

CEO Zeno Staub has asked the board of directors to resign his mandate at next year’s annual general meeting in April. He served as the company’s CEO for 12 years. Staub plans to become more active in Swiss politics and will run as the top candidate for Switzerland's Center Party «Die Mitte» in the National Council elections in the fall of 2023. However, he will stand for election as an ordinary member of the board of directors for Vontobel at the general meeting of shareholders 2025 after a one-year cooling-off period.
COO Felix Lenhard, is also stepping down at the end of the year.

Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB)

Cornelia Lindegger will take over as Head of the Oberland Market Area in Private Banking at ZKB as of mid-August 2023. She will report directly to Florence Schnydrig Moser, Head of Private Banking and Member of the General Management. Lindegger succeeds Roman Schwarz who managed the Oberland market area for almost ten years and takes over as Head of Financial Advisory at ZKB.
ZKB appoints Hjalmar Schroeder as its new Head of Risk and Member of the General Management effective April 1st of next year. He succeeds Roger Mueller, who is leaving the bank at the end of March as part of the regular succession planning for members of the Group Executive Board.

Contact

Dr. Matthias Oberholzer
Russell Reynolds Associates
Stampfenbachstrasse 5 8001 Zurich
Switzerland
Tel: +41-44-447-30-30
Direct: +41-44-447-30-34
Mobile: +41-79-473-72-68
matthias.oberholzer@russellreynolds.com

Dr. Corrado Menghini
Russell Reynolds Associates
Stampfenbachstrasse 5 8001 Zurich
Switzerland
Tel: +41-44-447-30-30
Direct: +41-44-447-30-33
Mobile: +41-79-261-92-42
corrado.menghini@russellreynolds.com