The Seventh Annual WealthBriefing Swiss Awards 2020

Nick Blaydes

Managing Director

EY

Nick Blaydes has 20 years’ investment banking experience and has worked exclusively on transactions in the financial services sector for more than a decade. Nick is head of EY’s financial services transactions team for Switzerland and leads the European M&A team for clients in the wealth management sector. Nick has an extensive track record in advising clients in the financial services industry on a variety of strategic development areas, including strategic options analysis, M&A, portfolio transactions, market entry strategies and co-operations, as well as on valuation and corporate finance issues.

Philippe Bongrand

Senior Partner

Roland Berger

Philippe advises wealth and asset managers on growth, digital strategies and transformation issues. He has worked with more than 50 clients that are global, regional or domestic leaders – in offshore and/or onshore markets - seeking to accelerate their transformation and improve their economics. In his 28 years of experience, he worked both as a strategy consultant and having operational roles in the industry, in particular having led functions such as strategy, business development, sales management, sales force effectiveness and marketing.

Ludovic Bonnamour

Managing Director

TCA Asset Management

Ludovic Bonnamour is managing director and partner of TCA Asset Management, a Swiss-based advisory boutique specialising in wealth management, corporate finance, fund services and family office solutions. Ludovic has worked for 14 years in international companies such as Allianz and HSBC in several functions from risk management to advisory services, and alongside internal and external clients in retail banking, private banking and corporate banking activities. Specialising in alternative investments as well as in quantitative fields, Ludovic has worked in the hedge funds industry, credit advisory, portfolio leverage analysis, Basel regulatory capital requirements and lending activities, while liaising with group offices before developing new services from TCA Asset Management since 2011.

Cecile Civiale Vuillier

Senior Wealth Planner and Trust Expert

Cecile has enjoyed a varied career working with small and large trust companies alike, earning a solid reputation for her work on international trust & foundation administration/corporate services. Prior to moving to Geneva she worked in the UK and France before relocating to Switzerland to head up a trust company. Cecile is a member of several significant professional bodies including The International Tax Planning Association, and the Association of International Business Lawyers. She is former co-chair of the Swiss & Liechtenstein STEP Federation and has qualifications in company law and practice, international trust management, trust administration and accounts, and trust creation.

James Day

Managing Director

Peritus Investment Consultancy

James is founder and managing director of Peritus Investment Consultancy, established to provide impartial guidance to private clients, family offices and trustees. The company’s expertise encompasses investment profiling, strategic and tactical asset allocation, extensive manager research, manager selection and ongoing consolidated reporting and monitoring. James draws on 30 years of industry experience at Ernst and Young Trust Company, ABN AMRO and Morgan Stanley Quilter. James is a regular participant in family office investment committees and is Fellow of the CISI.

Justine Markovitz

Chairperson

Withers

Justine Markovitz is global chairperson of Withers. She joined the firm in 1999, and in 2005 moved to Switzerland to open and head their Geneva office. She focuses on advising private clients and financial institutions in relation to onshore UK and offshore tax, trust and estate planning, with particular emphasis on planning for UK resident non-domiciliaries. She also advises on wills and trust drafting matters as well as on international tax investigations. Justine advises families on succession and governance issues, working closely with those families to create structures and legal solutions to implement their long-term succession plans both for their personal assets and business interests.

Daniel Martineau

Executive Chairman

Summit Trust International

Daniel worked in management positions in leading trust companies in Canada prior to taking up roles in offshore trust companies in Nassau, Jersey and Geneva with Coutts International Private Bank. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, he subsequently earned his Master of Business Administration at the University of Miami. He is accredited as a member of the Financial Planning Institute of Canada and a member of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners (STEP). Daniel is a founder of the Swiss Association of Trust Companies (SATC). Daniel is a Canadian and Swiss citizen and speaks English and French.

Andrew McCallum

Managing Director

Rhône Trustees

Andrew is a trustee for various UHNW and HNW families, and also specialises in the accounting and auditing of trust and corporate structures. Andrew is a UK qualified chartered accountant, and is a registered auditor in Switzerland, the UK and Ireland. He is treasurer and a committee member of STEP Geneva, and also sits on the STEP Worldwide professional standards committee. He is also a long-standing member of the audit and risk committee of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Elmar Meyer

Founder and CEO

Lexpert Partners

Elmar Meyer is the founder and CEO of Lexpert Partners, a specialized law firm focused on financial services providers and their clients located in Zug. Elmar’s areas of specialization include advising Swiss and foreign banks, asset managers and family offices in all legal and regulatory areas. He also advises and assists HNW individuals in their (often cross-border) asset and estate planning. Before founding Lexpert Partners, Elmar was founding partner of GHM Partners, a legal and tax advisory firm in Zug.  Prior to this he headed the legal and compliance department of Julius Baer in Dubai serving on its management committee and acting as a member of the board for Julius Baer in Cairo. Elmar also serves on the board on a number of major asset management companies in Switzerland.

Mark Miles

Partner, European Head of Wealth Management

McLagan and Scorpio Partnership, (Aon companies)

Mark is head of the wealth management & private banking practice in Europe, and is globally responsible for the Scorpio wealth consulting business. Leads the development and delivery of market leading business performance consulting, leveraging the firm’s proprietary data and analysis of client experience, pay & productivity, and talent to deliver unmatched insight and actionable advice. Over twenty years of financial services industry experience, focused on the private banking and wealth management sector. He holds a Masters (MEng) in the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos (MET) from St John’s College, Cambridge University, and completed an accelerated development programme at the London Business School.

Osmond Plummer

Managing Director

Wealthcoaching.ch

Osmond Plummer, is a Geneva-based wealth management expert active internationally as a trainer, coach and adviser of wealth management professionals. He is a senior lecturer in finance at the London Institute of Banking & Finance and visiting faculty at EU Business School in Geneva. Osmond worked in private banking in Guernsey, Hong Kong and Dubai prior to moving to Geneva in 1999. The Swiss correspondent for WealthBriefing and the founder of www.wealthcoaching.ch, Osy holds an MBA from Warwick University Business School and PGCHE in Banking & Finance. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Ray Soudah

Chairman and Founding Partner

MilleniumAssociates

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 originally focused on the financial services industry, however in recent years it has built on this M&A expertise and experience and established an additional entrepreneurs and corporates practic.

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.

Dr Marcel Tschanz

Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services

PwC

Dr. Marcel Tschanz has over 20 years of professional experience that embraces a record of leading large multi-cultural teams in international environments and of managing complex long-term projects. Over this period he has worked in several financial serviced firms with P&L responsibilities in global wealth management organisations. In his last assignment Marcel headed VP Bank (Switzerland) AG as its CEO. Marcel has developed and implemented new service and business models and led the implementation of sustainable cultural change programmes.  His current role as partner at PwC means he is responsible for WM strategy consulting and services for several large global private banks.

Gregoire Uldry

Partner

Charles Russell Speechlys

Grégoire Uldry advises families, entrepreneurs, financial intermediaries, sport individuals and agents on cross-border private client, inheritance law, philanthropy and sports matters. He also acts as executor of high net-worth estates and advises clients living in, or looking to relocate to Switzerland. Specialising in asset structuring and estate planning, Gregoier’s expertise is rooted in charitable trusts and foundations, commercial law for family-owned businesses, and international families looking for effective governance structures through which to organise the long-term transition of wealth, including family businesses.

Gregoire is a member of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners (STEP).

David Wilson

Partner

Schellenberg Wittmer

David Wallace Wilson is a partner in Schellenberg Wittmer’s private client & estates practice in Switzerland. He advises individuals domestically and internationally on all aspects of wealth structures and tax planning for their personal and business assets. He is specialised in matrimonial and inheritance issues including succession vehicles. David also administers cross-border estates and acts in family disputes including mediation. His additional areas of expertise include anti-money laundering (AML) and art law. David currently acts as chairman of STEP Geneva and is the founder of the leading website on trusts in Switzerland (www.trusts.ch).

Niels Bom-Olesen

CEO

Hyposwiss Banque Privee

Niels Bom-Olesen is the CEO of Hyposwiss Private Bank in Geneva, a family owned private Swiss bank. An economist (Canterbury, UK 1983) and banker (DK Bankers Association 1987) by training, he started his career by working for Crocker National Bank, a major US bank in San Francisco before moving to Nordea Bank in 1986, first in Copenhagen and subsequently in Geneva. In 1992 he joined Credit Suisse and led the UK International private banking team for almost 20 years before joining Hyposwiss in 2012 where he was appointed CEO in June 2014. An avid cyclist and golfer, he also enjoys taking time out with his family in Switzerland and Denmark.

Tom Burroughes

Group Editor

ClearView Financial Media

Tom Burroughes is group editor of ClearView Financial Media, publisher of WealthBriefing, WealthBriefingAsia and Family Wealth Report. Tom has worked at ClearView since 2008, reporting on news stories, interviewing industry leaders, writing features and comment pieces, and has spoken at conferences in London, Guernsey and Vienna, among other locations. He has discussed the industry’s issues on Reuters television and the BBC. Previously, Tom was wealth management editor of The Business, the weekly UK magazine run by the Telegraph Group, from 2007 to 2008. Before that, he was a correspondent in various roles at Reuters, the global newswire. Between 1994 and 2000, he was a reporter for Market News International, a New York-headquartered newswire.

Etienne D'Arenberg

Partner

Bank Mirabaud

Etienne d’Arenberg has been a limited partner at Mirabaud since 2011. He joined the group in 1999.

In 2016, he took over the management of the UK market for the group and sits on the board of Mirabaud Europe Ltd, the European bank of the group. He also sits on the board of his own family's family office. From 1995 to 1999, he was a MD at Creditanstalt Investment Bank in Vienna focusing on CEE countries. Prior to that, he was a development analyst in Paris for a subsidiary of Compagnie Générale des Eaux. He sits on or chairs several charity boards, most notably linked to music, in Switzerland, Europe and UK. He holds a MSc (Mgt) from Boston University and graduated from the Hotel Management School of Lausanne.

Laurent Gagnebin

CEO

Rothschild & Co

Laurent started his career at Rothschild & Co in 2011 as head of the Geneva office. He was later appointed as head of private clients Swiss onshore & Iberia and was made chief executive officer of Rothschild & Co Bank on 1 June 2016. He became global partner of Rothschild & Co in 2017.

Laurent joined Rothschild from Investec Bank, Geneva where he was senior private banker and head of the Geneva office successfully building a new business that provided tailored solutions to private clients. Prior to Investec, Laurent was executive director at Goldman Sachs, Geneva where he focussed primarily on entrepreneurs in technology and financial services.

Dr Ariel Sergio Goekmen

Member of the Executive Board

Schroder & Co Bank

Ariel is active on the board of companies and charities with focus on Switzerland, UK and Russia. In his career, Ariel was on executive board level of private banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein for ten years and is in business since 1983. Ariel creates value both by understanding finance as well as marketing and involves his wide professional network. He holds an MBA from Rochester NY and an LL.M. from University of Zurich. A member of STEP, ITPA, IISS and IFA. He contributes regularly to articles and books and at international conferences.

Xavier Isaac

CEO

Accuro

Xavier Isaac is CEO of Accuro, the multi-jurisdictional trust and family office business. Xavier gained over 20 years of experience in various senior management positions at ABN AMRO Bank and Trust in Luxembourg, Geneva and Jersey prior to joining Investec in 2005. He was instrumental in the launch of Accuro in May 2017 following the successful completion of the management buyout of the Salamanca Trust Group, formally known as Investec Trust. Originally from Belgium, Xavier graduated magna cum laude in law from the Catholic University of Louvain. He served as the inaugural Vice-President of the Swiss Association of Trust Companies (SATC). He is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and is a Presiding Judge for the STEP Private Client Awards 2018/19. Xavier is a regular speaker at conferences organized by STEP, SATC, Academy & Finance and Transcontinental Trust. Since February 2016, Xavier has been the treasurer of the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation.

Arnaud Leclercq

Group Managing Director

Lombard Odier

Arnaud Leclercq is partner of Lombard Odier Group, group managing director and responsible since 2006 of the New Markets, including the Middle East, Turkey and Eastern Countries.

He completed law studies, holds an MBA from HEC Paris and is a graduate of Harvard Business School. He began his career as a lawyer specializing in M&A in emerging countries before an entrepreneurial venture in Moscow.
Arnaud Leclercq consolidates 25 years of growing business experience within emerging markets where he lived and still often travels to. Prior to Lombard Odier, he was a managing director of Credit Suisse.

Duncan Munro

Senior Vice President

Banco Santander

Duncan joined Banco Santander in 2018. He was previously managing director with Bank Lombard Odier in Geneva where he was responsible for the UK private client team. Duncan has nearly 40 years finance experience, the majority of which has been spent in Switzerland in the field of private banking, with a particular focus on UK resident non-UK domiciled clients. In addition to direct client experience, Duncan has for many years been responsible for managing private banking teams across jurisdictions. Duncan has previously held management positions in Geneva, Zürich and Copenhagen with HSBC Private Bank (Suisse), the Lloyds TSB Group and Jyske Bank.

Jean-Christophe Pernollet

CRO

Edmond de Rothschild Group

JCP has over 25 years of working experience in finance and management in Switzerland, France and the United States. He is the chief risk officer of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. Earlier in his career he was the partner in charge of the Geneva office of PricewaterhouseCoopers and then chief financial officer of EFG International. He is a graduate from IEP and EDHEC and has completed the Columbia Business School Senior Executive Programme.

Matthew Spencer

Head of Business Development and Marketing

Close Brothers Asset Management

Matthew is a highly effective leader of business development teams with unique experience of managing external and internal growth strategies across brands nationally and internationally. He is managing director, head of business development and marketing at Close Brothers and a member of the management committee. He has extensive experience at executive level developing and implementing strategy whilst personally leading new business growth. Matthew has previously held senior positions at Deutsche Bank, Coutts and Credit Suisse.

Stefano Veri

Group Managing Director, Head Global Financial Intermediaries

UBS Wealth Management

Stefano started his career at UBS in 1981. Having served as client advisor for corporate and wealth management clients in Switzerland and New York he has also covered a wide range of line management position in several areas of wealth management. Stefano was head of HNW and UHNWI business for Italy International before being appointed head of the firm’s UHNWI business for the global established markets in Switzerland. Prior to his current role, Stefano led wealth management Europe international and Forex distribution and active advisory. He was appointed group managing director in 2014.

Bruce Weatherill

Chief Executive

Weatherill Consulting

Bruce is a chartered accountant with over 37 years financial services experience, previously a partner in PwC, latterly as Global leader of their Wealth Management practice and the key driver of their bi-annual Wealth Management Report. Bruce is now CEO of Weatherill Consulting providing advice on client centricity and wider strategic matters to wealth managers. He is the author of The Value of Trust: the quest by Wealth Managers for Trusted Advisor status and a number of other thought leadership reports. Bruce is chairman of ClearView Financial Media and a non-executive of a number of companies including Fidelity Holdings UK, The Wisdom Council, ComPeer, JDX Consulting and Ten Group.

Michael Welti

Managing Director and Head

REYL & Cie

Michael Welti is head of REYL & Cie Zurich, but began his career in 1989 at UBS in Zurich where he was a client advisor until 1996. He then became a private banker at WestLB and, in 1999, joined ABN AMRO Private Banking where he was in turn responsible for English-speaking countries, the German market, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

He became a member of the Zurich branch Management Committee and managed several private banking teams in the Group. When ABN AMRO Switzerland was taken over by Union Bancaire Privée in 2011, he became a member of the Executive Committee of UBP Zurich and continued to oversee the same regions. Michael Welti joined REYL & Cie in 2014 as general manager of the Zurich branch.