In Zurich financial circles, he is seen as a viable candidate for the vacant CEO position at traditional bank Julius Baer. And yet, it now transpires that the dual citizen of Italy and Switzerland and long-standing Credit Suisse Executive Francesco De Ferrari has other interests, and other irons in the fire.
«An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest,» so goes the latest motto from Francesco De Ferrari. Up until recently, he ran the wealth management business at Credit Suisse, and then worked in the service of UBS – a role which he left discretely at the end of 2023.
Now, the Italian-Swiss dual citizen, who can look back over almost 20 years (with interruptions) at Credit Suisse in Asia, is actually investing in education in his southern home, as he announced to his followers on LinkedIn some days ago.
Cooperation with NASA
«I spent a very exciting week in Rome on a new venture I invested in,» writes De Ferrari. More specifically, he is referring to the company Novi Education, which was founded with the aim of becoming a «global education company inspiring the world to learn».
«If we are driven by the principle to change the world, we have to start by better educating our next generation,» the former banker continues. For its first program, the company is partnering with America’s Space Center Houston.
Future Julius Baer CEO?
Space Center Houston, owned by NASA, is also a leading STEM learning center (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). In this context, Novi Education has used its experience in education to create two Ingenium Education schools for primary and secondary schools in Italy, according to De Ferrari.
This involvement is unlikely to keep De Ferrari’s diary completely full or at least not at the moment anyway. This is why he is still seen as a candidate to succeed Philipp Rickenbacher as the CEO of the Julius Baer Group, as reported recently by industry platform «tippinpoint.»
