People Moves
Vontobel Reshuffles Senior Ranks
The Swiss firm has announced a series of changes across its organisational lines. Among the moves, Alex Schwarzer is stepping down from his operational role but will remain chairman of a Vontobel subsidiary.
Swiss wealth management house Vontobel has reshuffled its
senior leadership, it announced yesterday.
Axel Schwarzer will step down from his operational role on 1
January next year after 10 years in that role. He will retain his
ties to Vontobel as chairman of TwentyFour Asset Management, a
subsidiary of Vontobel, the firm said in a statement.
Investment functions will report directly to chief executive Zeno
Staub in future. Marko Röder, longstanding head of global sales
in asset management since July 2011, will take over running the
asset management client unit.
The executive committee of Vontobel will comprise the following
members with effect from 1 January 2021: Zeno Staub (CEO), Thomas
Heinzl (CFO), Felix Lenhard (COO) and Enrico Friz (General
Counsel). Georg Schubiger and Axel Schwarzer will step down from
the governing body at the end of 2020.
Separately, from 1 January, the members of the executive
committee of Bank Vontobel AG – a different legal entity – will
be: Zeno Staub (CEO), Georg Schubiger (head Wealth Management),
Markus Pfister (head Structured Solutions and Treasury), Thomas
Heinzl (CFO), Felix Lenhard (COO) and Enrico Friz (general
counsel).
“The changes in the operating environment as well as the
performance of the business to date, confirm that Vontobel’s
strategic decision in December 2019 to position itself as a
globally active pure-play investment firm was the right course of
action,” the business said.
The investment boutiques with the boutique heads Matthew
Benkendorf, Mark Holman, Simon Lue-Fong, Daniel Seiler, Hans
Speich and Dan Scott, will report to Staub from the start of
2021.
The boutique heads will also be directly represented in all the
relevant client and performance boards.
Vontobel said that its asset management arm has become one of its
main and most reliable growth engines. It said that net new money
growth has “significantly” beaten its target range of between 4
to 6 per cent.
In the first nine months of 2020, asset management recorded a net
inflow of new money of SFr9.3 billion ($10.3 billion), rising by
10 per cent on an annualised basis. Advised client assets have
more than trebled from SFr43 billion to SFr142 billion over the
last ten years.