Jimmy Lee
Like Rossi and Classen before him, Lee’s credentials are impeccable. The long-standing Asia banker goes way back in Swiss private banking: he even worked for Swiss Bank Corp. before its megamerger to modern-day UBS in 1997. He spent ten years working for Credit Suisse or subsidiary Clariden Leu in Asia.
To be sure, Lee’s appointment would mark the first time an Asian banker made it into the top spot at a Swiss private bank. Switzerland may not be quite ready for that, but given Asia’s importance to Julius Baer as its second home market and his stellar CV, Lee will be on the shortlist.
Yves Robert-Charrue
He is just 44 years old, but Europe head Robert-Charrue is clearly in line for the top Julius Baer job. The Swiss native is, like Collardi, perfectly fluent in French and German – a key asset in Switzerland. His academic chops – London School of Economics and the University of St. Gallen – are meatier than Collardi’s or Rossi’s. But Robert-Charrue has little of the foreign experience that the other two Credit Suisse alumni notched up early in their careers.
He is also coming off a less-than-stellar 2017: Julius Baer shocked the Swiss market by suddenly integrating independent wealth manager WMPartners, despite repeated avowals to avoid exactly that. The move backfired with Wergen & Partner, another IAM that Julius Baer acquired shortly before. Wergen’s influential advisor force refused to disappear into Julius Baer, threatening defection. In the scheme of Julius Baer, the local drama is not huge, but its handling reflects unfavorably on Robert-Charrue.
Alexander Classen
The long-standing Swiss private banker now runs family office Bedrock, but his private banking industry credentials are as impeccable as they get: Pictet, Goldman Sachs, and Coutts International, which he ran until it was sold to Union Bancaire Privee more than two years ago. The Geneva-born banker is used to dealing with the type of large multi-national firm that Julius Baer has become, after wrangling with Coutts owner the Royal Bank of Scotland for years.
Classen joined Bedrock last May with a mandate to expand the firm’s 10 billion Swiss francs in assets. Could he be tempted to go for a far larger challenge like Julius Baer? Headhunters will certainly drop him a line to ask.
