Vontobel’s long-standing CEO Zeno Staub told a Swiss French-speaking newspaper in an interview what made him decide to leave Vontobel to go into politics.
After 12 years at the helm of the Zurich-based investment house, Zeno Staub announced that he will be stepping down in the spring of next year and running as a candidate for Switzerland's Center Party «Die Mitte» in the federal elections in Zurich this fall. Staub will remain on the board of directors.
Freedom, responsibility, and solidarity are at the center of his party’s objectives, Staub said in an interview with «Le Temps» (in French, behind a paywall), while adding that «a certain level of redistribution is necessary for equal opportunity.»
He also said that he was happy to keep a foot in the financial industry. «It's an advantage to be active in both worlds,» Staub said.
Swiss Traits
Although traits including reliability, long-term vision, integrity, and quality are often considered inherently Swiss, his successor doesn't need to hold a red passport, he said.
The firm has nearly doubled in size during Staub’s tenure. When he started working at Vontobel 22 years ago, the industry was more locally focused with businesses traditionally pausing from mid-July to mid-August, he said. That has now changed.
Diversity Key
Nowadays, investment activities are much more interconnected internationally, making diversity in teams more important, he said.
Looking back at what he could have done differently, the company's rebranding could have happened earlier than 2016, he added.
