Gervais has 12 years' experience of providing corporate finance advice to entrepreneurs and family offices and cross-selling corporate finance and private bank key client relationships across Europe, Middle East and Africa, first at JP Morgan and later at Deutsche Bank.

Bi-lingual in English and French, and also speaking Portuguese and Spanish, he will be based in London and initially report to Michael Bishop, head for ultra high net worth and global family office UK, and  then to Susan Ward when she joins as head GFO UK in May onwards with a line into Jeremy Eakin for GFO global emerging markets in London.

Among other recent appointments, the Zurich-listed firm hired Blackrock's German head Dirk Klee as chief operating officer of its private banking arm, taking the post in September. It has also appointed Kirsten Burt as the head of marketing for the UK, Jersey and UK international. She joined from Standard Chartered Private Bank, where she was head of marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Americas.