People Moves
Julius Baer Creates New Investment Division; Brings In Former CIO From Swiss Private Bank
The private bank has brought in the former CIO from a rival to head up a dedicated investment division.
Julius Baer
has created a new division to bolster its investment
management arm, bringing in a former investment chief from
Pictet to lead it. The
move was announced on the same day that the bank announced it had
appointed a new head for its Southeast Asia business.
The new division is called Investment Management (IM) and
is led by Yves Henri Bonzon. He becomes a member of the
bank’s executive board as of 1 February. He will report to Boris
Collardi, chief executive. The IM division will complement
the Investment Solutions Group (ISG), an existing division
headed by Burkhard Varnholt. He and Bonzon will be co-CIOs.
The decision by Bonzon to move to Julius Baer represents a change
of mind for the man who had, previously, decided to join BSI, the
Swiss bank owned by controversy-hit Grupo BTG Pactual.
In August, BSI said that Bonzon would join it on 1 January. It
has been speculated that BTG Pactual, which bought BSI earlier in
2015, might sell it again to raise capital amid a corruption
scandal that has seen Andres Esteves, its founder, being arrested
on corruption allegations linked to the Brazilian government. "We
confirm that Mr Bonzon decided not to join BSI as a consequence
of the situation around BTG Pactual," a BSI spokesperson was
quoted by Reuters as saying.
At Pictet, Bonzon was an equity partner, group MD and chief
investment officer of the wealth management division. Since 1998,
he had chaired Pictet’s investment committee. He left that
venerable Swiss firm in December last year.
Yesterday, Julius Baer, which has described Asia as its second
home market, said it has appointed Torsten Linke, a former senior
figure at Credit Suisse in Asia, as the head of private banking
for Southeast Asia and branch manager for Singapore. David Lim,
who previously held these roles, becomes vice chairman for
Southeast Asia. Linke’s appointment as branch manager in
Singapore is subject to regulatory approval.
In his new role, Linke reports to Jimmy Lee, head of Asia-Pacific at the Zurich-listed bank.
