The Third Annual WealthBriefing Swiss External Asset Management Awards for Excellence 2023

Alain Esseiva is the Co-Founder and CEO of Alpadis Group. Alain leads the business, development, strategy and growth aspects of the Group, and oversees the day-to-day operations of the Singapore office as well as growth in Switzerland.

Alain brings over 30 years of combined experience in wealth planning and fiduciary services both in Switzerland and internationally. He has a calculated appetite for risk and embraces change, constantly looking at new markets and opportunities.

When he is not advising his clients across Switzerland and Asia, Alain enjoys running ultramarathons around the world, including the Gobi Desert, Kazakhstan and Antarctica.

Anne is founder and managing director of the award-winning, Swiss online platform AW✚SWITZERLAND at americanswelcome.swiss. AWS introduces Swiss asset managers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States and dedicated to providing Swiss-based wealth management services to US and Canadian citizens, residents, and expats. The platform includes other wealth management-related services as well. In addition, Anne provides US-oriented, digital and traditional marketing, communication, and business development strategies through her agency, Americom.

Hassen is a Senior Relationship Manager covering External Asset Managers at MCB (DIFC Branch). He relocated from MCB’s Head Office in July 2021 where he was previously responsible for coverage of EAMs and Multi Family Offices in Switzerland, Monaco, the UAE and in Mauritius. Prior to joining MCB, Hassen established the EAM Desk at Afrasia Bank, a boutique bank based in Mauritius. Hassen is an entrepreneurial and solution oriented banking professional with experience in multiple African, Middle Eastern and European jurisdictions who actively leverages on the entire MCB Group capabilities that also include corporate and investment banking, asset management and private equity. He holds a Master of Business Administration from HEC Paris and speaks fluently English and French.

Helén Dybing is Sales Executive at Masttro, an award-winning global wealth data company, and covers the European, Middle East and African region. With more than a decade of international experience in senior roles across European financial institutions, most recently as Head of the External Asset Managers Desk at Falcon Private Ltd, she brings a wealth of expertise in working with UHNW Clients, Family Offices and External Asset Managers to Masttro. She is highly skilled in client-facing experiences and possesses exceptional knowledge of the Wealth Management and FinTech industries in Europe. Helén is based in the Masttro European office, located in Europaallee, Zurich.

Ian is a C-Suite leader, Director and an Advisor. He has a focus on customer experience and organizational progression. 

As a former member of the Executive Committee of Coutts & Co, RBS and in addition a Board member at Adam & Co, Ian is known as an industry strategy leader and reference for marketing, business development, brand creation and implementation and innovation. Ian is actively involved with a number of innovation firms and partners in FinTech, Payments disruption, Savings and Pensions, and is an Advisor to YEXT and KORE.

He is currently Chief Marketing Officer at Acin Ltd.

Additionally, Ian sits on a number of advisory boards in organisations with both commercial and philanthropic purpose.

Ian is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. 

He has enjoyed a highly international career; is Swiss and British.

Ian lives in the UK and Spain and is married to his wife Zoe; they have four grown-up children.

Laurent Pellet joined Lombard Odier in June 2017. He assumed responsibility for the Group’s External Asset Managers department in 2018.

His career began with Ferrier Lullin, where he held various positions for more than 15 years, including Head of Credit and Risk, and subsequently Head of the External Asset Managers department in 1997. In 2006, he joined Julius Baer to lead their External Asset Managers business for the French-speaking part of Switzerland and Western Europe. In 2012, his responsibilities were extended to cover Monaco and the Middle East.

Laurent Pellet holds a Federal Diploma (school leaving certificate) from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Genève. He is a graduate in Credit and Risk Management from the University of Geneva, and in Quantitative Portfolio Management from HEC Geneva. He also holds a Diploma in Digital Finance Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and the ‘International Certificate of Private Banking and Wealth Management Retreat’ from the Swiss Finance Institute. He is a Certified Wealth Management Advisor (CWMA).

Mario brings extensive experience to the industry as senior advisor driving sales and business initiatives in Asia Pacific for UHNWI/FO service providers. He draws upon his detailed understanding from roles such as global head of business management for ANZ Private Bank in Australasia, where he defined and delivered the strategic and operational needs for the business.

Previously Mario worked for leading wealth managers such as Vontobel, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, holding positions across a variety of disciplines including relationship management, business and financial planning, training and development, strategy, business development and marketing communications in both Europe and Asia. He was also managing director for Solution Providers Management Consulting, leading its growth in Asia Pacific, specifically Singapore.

He wrote and published his Ph.D. thesis about the supervision of External Asset Managers [EAM] in Switzerland (“Der bankunabhängige Vermögensverwalter: Analyse des Handlungsbedarfs einer möglichen Aufsicht unter Berücksichtigung des amerikanischen und englischen Rechts”), build up/out of various EAM desks in Switzerland and Singapore and serviced this segment.

Peter Vangehr is the Head of the Intermediaries Business at VP Bank Switzerland since beginning of 2019. Peter started his Banking Carrier as an FX Trader with UBS Zurich and after at ABN AMRO Bank for more than 10 years. He has over 20 years of professional experience working with intermediaries, working for leading banks such as Credit Suisse Group, Julius Bär, ABN AMRO Bank and VP Bank. Peter holds different diplomas from the Swiss Banking organizations.

Pierre Daelemans is a seasoned wealth manager with a lengthy experience in dealing with a large panel of international clients: HNWIs, External Asset Managers, Single or Multi-Family and Offices, in Switzerland, Northern Europe, and Latin America. For nearly two decades, Pierre has applied his experience, professionalism and well-developed technical skills to deliver ‘first-class’ services to clients.

Before joining Indosuez Wealth Management in 2020 as Head of Professional Clients in Switzerland, Pierre Daelemans successively managed the North European, Latin American and EAM markets in an International Swiss private bank.

Swiss, Peruvian and Belgian, Pierre holds an MBA from Queens University (Canada) and is graduated in Engineering from Louvain University (Belgium).

Pierre is Managing Partner at WIZE by TeamWork, the all-in-one Wealth & Asset Management solution, which is one of the fastest growing WealthTech companies in Switzerland dedicated to External Asset Managers, Family Offices, Fund Managers and Banks.

He brings the judges panel an extensive banking operations & IT expertise acquired in his current role since 2020 but also during the 9 previous years while heading business development of Bank Lombard Odier global custody & reporting services which he joined after 10 years as Private Banking Client Executive at IBM Geneva.

Both Swiss and Belgian, used to work in multi-cultural and multilingual environments, his motivation has been during his whole career to understanding customer's pains, translating those to experts who are able to solve them and setting the right level of expectations on both sides.

Ray Soudah is the founding partner and chairman of MilleniumAssociates, the independent international M&A and Corporate Finance Advisory firm, based in Switzerland and the UK. Founded in 2000, the firm marks twenty-two years of exceptional, independent M&A and corporate finance advisory service. Originally focused on executing M&A transactions in the global financial services industry, as the industry developed and private banks recognised the need to offer their clients more specialist corporate finance advice, Millenium Associates launched their Entrepreneurs and
Corporates Practice, extending their M&A and corporate finance services to the clients of private
banks as well as corporates and entrepreneurial business owners globally.
Ray has extensive multicultural wealth management and private banking/investment banking experience working in territories as diverse as the US, Asia, Middle East and Europe. Earlier positions include; Managing Director and member of the Private Banking Management Board for SBC/UBS AG; Chief Investment Officer, Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Board of Cedel Bank (renamed Clearstream); Chief Investment Officer for the National Bank of Bahrain including Head of International Banking and Private Banking; CEO of Hong Kong, CEO of Japan, Head of Global Capital Markets office (London) and head of FIG for Midland Montagu Investment Banking and MD/CEO of
Midland Montagu Securities as well as various senior positions within Citigroup, including Head of Asia Pacific Treasury and Capital Markets.
Ray is a Harvard Business School & INSEAD alumnus and speaks English, French, Greek and Japanese.

Véronique Riondel Angebault is Head of Syz Independent Managers. She was promoted to the position in June 2020, after 11 years in the team in different roles. She started as Relationship Manager to develop the desk, then became Business Manager for the team, helping to answer clients’ needs.

Veronique joined Syz in 2006, coming from the industry, working for Unilever, Nestlé, Moevenpick and Pronuptia from Marketing Manager to Marketing Director. Prior to that, Veronique has been a strategic planner in Global communication agencies such as Creative Business, RSCG, CLM/BBDO and Sales Manager at Interdéco (Groupe Hachette) in Geneva and Paris.

She holds a Mc’s in Business and Industrial Science from University of Geneva and a diploma in Wealth Management and Private Banking (ISFB) done on the job when joining the banking industry.