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Leave one thing to Urs Rohner (61): the current chairman of Credit Suisse (CS) is a magician when it comes to personnel matters, and when it comes to personnel matters, he always conjures up a surprise on his hat. That was the case for Tidjane Thiam (58) in 2015. At the time, no one could have known that the story with the CEO would end like this. The choice of Thiam’s successor, Thomas Gottstein (56), was above all smart, more than surprising: the Swiss at the top restores calm to the bank.
So now António Horta-Osório (56), who will succeed Rohner as president of CS in the spring of 2021. A Portuguese who has come a long way in the financial center of London, but no one in Switzerland had him on their radar. “It’s a big surprise,” says banker and businessman Adriano Lucatelli (54), who knows the two big banks with his own eyes. Lucatelli is convinced that “Horta-Osório has all the requirements that this job needs”. “He is a banker who has shown that he can survive in different cultures and business models.”
Speak five languages
That means you know many facets of the banking business. He started his banking career in 1987 at Citigroup in Portugal. From 1991 to 1993 he worked as an investment banker in New York and London. In 1993 he joined the Santander Group, for which the passionate diver and tennis player ran Santander’s business in Brazil for four years, gaining experience in emerging countries.
A financial professional who has traveled extensively and speaks five languages, including French and Italian, as well as English, Spanish and Portuguese. Horta-Osório currently lives with his family in the Chelsea district of London. He and his wife Ana (56) have three children. The family will move to Switzerland, when and where it is still open. A smart move, because the Portuguese, who was also in the service of the Bank of England, is the first president of the CS who does not have a Swiss passport.
Advantage and disadvantage at the same time: the surprise president brings a breath of fresh air to the bank. On the other hand, you are not very familiar with the special features of the Swiss financial center.
Defend your weaknesses
Since 2011, he has delivered his masterpiece as CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, a kind of large cantonal bank with a large network of branches and a large staff. His job: the big cut after the financial crisis. However, after a few months, the bank had to lay off its new boss for two months.
He was burned in a sleep clinic and slept for 16 hours straight for days with the help of medications. Because the problems at his bank had literally robbed him of his sleep. But in the long run, the Portuguese did a great job, bought his financial institution from the state and now leaves behind a rock solid bank.
A break for Urs Rohner
This summer, Horta-Osório submitted his resignation for 2021. “An exceptional banker announces his departure”, was the head of the “NZZ” at that time. An assessment shared by Oswald Grübel (77). “He is an excellent banker who brings a lot of technical knowledge,” the former CS and UBS director tells BLICK.
The choice of the Portuguese, also known as the “Mourinho of the financial world”, is a breakthrough for Urs Rohner and comes at the right time. After the financial crisis and with the end of bank secrecy, it took a lawyer and a lawyer in charge of CS to clean up most of the inherited problems. Now, in the spring of 2021, a banker will assume the presidency to lead the bank to a digital and lucrative future.
