Swiss Finance's Women To Watch in 2022

From the stately corridors of Switzerland's central bank to one of Geneva's most exclusive banking dynasties – finews.com on the eight women who will make a mark on Swiss finance next year.

Florence Schnydrig-Moser said she had no intentions of becoming the chief executive of Switzerland's largest state-owned bank in an interview with finews.com. As the Zuercher Kantonalbank’s new private banking head, she will nonetheless leave her mark when she's done consolidating its wealth management service into one central unit. As one of the very few managers with top-line experience in the Swiss financial center, she can also be counted on in the future.

Andréa Maechler is the first woman to sit on the Swiss National Bank's (SNB) three-member governing board. Will she also become the central bank’s first female president? Speculation about her ascent is rife after fellow director Fritz Zurbruegg announced plans to step down next year. The Swiss government has confirmed Thomas Jordan's chairmanship until 2027, leaving U.S.-educated economist Maechler plenty of time to get herself into position.

Marlene Amstad joined the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, after lecturing economics and finance in Shenzhen at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since becoming the regulator’s chair in January this year, she has heralded a new «suptech» era at the institution. Amstad is an honorary professor at the University of Bern and senior fellow at Harvard University.

Sabine Doebeli has been driving sustainable finance in Switzerland for over 25 years. Besides acting as the chief executive of Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF) she also advises the federal council on international cooperation as a member of the government’s advisory committee. With sustainability gaining traction in Swiss finance, there will be no getting around her.

Sabine Keller-Busse had a huge year: her new boss, UBS CEO Ralph Hamers, handed her the Swiss giant’s business at home and she took one a big board role in insurance several months later. Keller-Busse also emerged as a linchpin in the wider financial center, including through her board role at stock exchange operator SIX, which she gave up this year after nine years. In case Hamers is forced to step down over a revived money laundering probe, the German and Swiss Keller-Busse is a likely candidate to step in for him.

Marion Leslie is a British-Australian tech executive who has spent the last two years turning around the Swiss stock exchange’s data arm – a bid to make it competitive with entrenched players like Bloomberg and Refinitiv, where she spent the bulk of her career. Her mandate is to lift revenue in the long-neglected data arm by as much as one-quarter by 2025.

Ariane de Rothschild (whose image illustrates this piece) who began her career trading metals and forex and became a baroness through marriage, took over at Edmond de Rothschild this year following the death of her husband, Benjamin de Rothschild. The Frenchwoman quickly denied she would sell, advanced a key ally, and enlisted former Amundi boss Yves Perrier. Next year, her task is to keep the 175 billion Swiss franc ($190 billion) wealth and asset manager on an even keel and out of the headlines, after a flurry of activity and speculation since 2016.

Joanna Hannaford is about to become Credit Suisse’s most senior technologist. The British native looks back on a 24-year long career at Goldman Sachs and is now set to join the Swiss bank’s executive board on January 1st. The computer scientist, who will head the bank’s technology and operations, is a keen advocate for getting young women into engineering and STEM activities.