The private bank has changed its regional set-up and made a number of high-level appointments as part of an overhaul to its structure.

Julius Baer is streamlining its management structure into a new regional set-up, with one senior executive stepping down after a difference of views about the changes, while new appointments were also unveiled today by the Swiss bank.

The new set-up will consist of five regions: Switzerland, Europe (new), emerging markets (new), Latin America and Asia Pacific.

Philipp Rickenbacher has been appointed as head of advisory solutions, and Nic Dreckmann is named as chief operating officer. All new positions are staffed from within the organisation.
 
The regional structure of the Zurich-listed lender has been shrunk by one region, taking effect from 1 September.

The Switzerland region will be led by Gian Rossi. The intermediaries business will be allocated to the new regional structure and largely integrated into the Swiss region, which includes the global custody business as well. Rossi currently is head of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.

Barend Fruithof, who is head of Switzerland and global custody and a board member, has “decided to leave the bank after a smooth handover due to differing views of the functional changes in the context of the new regional set-up”.

The new Europe region (excluding Central/Eastern Europe, including Israel) will be run by Yves Robert-Charrue. He will further develop the European strategy, mainly out of the new European hub in Luxembourg following the recent acquisition of Commerzbank International. At present Robert-Charrue is responsible for the intermediaries business.

The newly established emerging markets region will be led by Rémy Bersier. The region’s strategy will be to capture growth opportunities in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe/CIS, the Middle East, India and Africa. Bersier, who currently is head of Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, will be based in Dubai.

The division known as Investment Solutions Group will focus fully on achieving high-quality client experience and will be renamed as Advisory Solutions, falling under the new leadership of Rickenbacher as of 1 August 2016. He is currently head of structured products.

New COO
Dreckmann will take up his new COO role and become a member of the executive board of the bank as of 1 August. He is currently in charge of the technology transformation of Julius Baer. He will take over from Gregory Gatesman, who joined from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2012 and who expressed his wish to return to the US some time ago. He will step down from the board of the bank on 1 August 2016 and will leave the group by the end of the year.

Group changes
Dreckmann will also be a member of the executive board of the group as of 1 January 2017. He replaces Gatesman, who will step down from the board of the group by the end of the year.

Giovanni Flury, board member of the group, will retire on grounds of age at the end of 2016.