Not all private bankers are stodgy, gray gnomes of Zurich. Back by popular demand, finews.asia ranked this year's most attractive bankers in Switzerland and in Asia.
With our usual disclaimer, finews.asia is proud to present the most attractive Swiss bankers – tongue firmly in cheek, of course. Last year's league table of hotness raised eyebrows – and pulses – particularly among female finance experts.
This year, we have gone back to the drawing board and taken a subjective look around Paradeplatz in Zurich and Geneva’s riverside banking area for the most attractive Swiss bankers.
A word on methodology: finews.asia has sought an even hand in considering bankers from both sides of the Roestigraben, the fictional divide between the dominant German-speaking region and the French-speaking one. And not all of the hotties are based in Switzerland – indeed, this year, the Asia faction represented well.
Brains and Brawn
Our spies also evaluated bankers from every sector of finance including insurance (see #13), alternative investments (#4) and even banking law (#12), but our ranking is once again heavy with wealth managers.
Why? In the uncharitable words of one contributor, «Let's face it – historically private bankers have not exactly been known for their brains. They have to be pretty.» Ouch! We would argue that finews.asia's league table combines brains and intellectual brawn.
Who moved up the league table, who dropped off and who is the fairest of them all? finews.asia's exclusive ranking of the Swiss bankers who are easiest on the eye, in ascending order.
15. Brian Fischer
finews.asia cannot deny it: Vontobel has always represented well with attractive bankers (see last year’s ranking). 2017 brought yet another Vontobel banker to the fore: Brian Fischer.
The bank’s head of external asset managers clinched a key partnership with the Bank of Singapore in February. The deal was a coup for the Swiss bank, which has only modest private banking operations in Asia. Fischer is a lawyer and is also on the board of real estate firm Mobimo.
14. Vincent Duhamel
One of the two Asia-based Swiss bankers on finews.com’s league table, Duhamel is actually originally from Canada. Last year, the Lombard Odier private banker drove from Beijing to Paris – 13,695 miles — in a 1941 Chevy coupe dubbed «Boomba» to raise money for the Asian University for Women.
Duhamel relinquished his role as head of Asia for the Genevan firm three months ago but remains chairman. A former Goldman Sachs banker, he has tried far more than his peers to spread the word on impact investing as a way of reaching millennial investors in Asia.
13. Urban Angehrn
Little-known to the wider public, Angehrn oversees $316 billion in Zurich Insurance assets. He advanced to top management two years ago from an alternative investment role in the U.S. With a masters in theoretical physics and a PhD in math from Harvard, Angehrn has major nerd credibility.
He’s been with the Zurich-based firm for ten years, but spent time at J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse in fixed income before moving to the insurance industry. Angehrn just barely edges out the charismatic Zurich finance chief George Quinn.
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