Julius Baer said Daniel Sauter, its long-standing chairman, won't stand for reelection. The Swiss private bank is proposing a former Credit Suisse trading veteran in his place.
The Zurich-based private bank said that Daniel Sauter, who has presided Julius Baer since 2012, will step down after ten years in total on Julius Baer's board.
The 61-year-old leaves Julius Baer at a delicate time: years of hot growth in Latin America has sparked a reputational nightmare. The bank is also beginning to feel the effects of the defection of its ex-CEO, star private banker Boris Collardi.
Woman on Board
Sauter, a former commodities executive and long-time associate of Marc Rich, will will continue to oversee Julius Baer's foundation, the bank said. Never a high-profile chairman, Sauter was nudged into the limelight by Collardi's exit in November 2017.
Two other directors – former UBS banker Andreas Amschwand as well as Gareth Penny, like Sauter a former commodities executive – won't stand for reelection either. Instead, Julius Baer is nominating Eunice Zehnder-Lai and Olga Zoutendijk for election by shareholders in April, tripling its current female board representation.
Zehnder-Lai is a former LGT, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch banker who is now primarily a director on DKSH, a Swiss business expansion firm which is strong in Asia. Zoutendijk is a former retail, corporate, and investment banker with experience at ABN Amro Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Westpac.
