Vontobel Promotes Former Singapore Head
Swiss investment house Vontobel has appointed a dual leadership for its structured-products division.
Otto Huber, who has led Structure Solutions and Treasury (SST) since 2023, has decided to leave the company following the divestment of Cosmofunding to spend more time with his family, the bank announced on Monday.
Against this backdrop, Georg von Wattenwyl and Charles Karila will jointly assume leadership of the SST division as of December 1, 2025.
Extensive Experience
Von Wattenwyl is a long-serving Vontobel banker. He joined the firm in 1998 and has since held various leadership roles in Europe and Asia, including serving as head of Vontobel’s Singapore entity from 2018 to 2023.
He has recently been responsible for the structured-products business for private and institutional clients, an area in which he already had extensive experience.
He is also active in industry associations in Switzerland and Europe, serving as president of the Swiss Structured Products Association (SSPA) and vice-chair of the European Structured Investment Products Association (EUSIPA).
Dual Leaderships
Karila joined Vontobel in 2017 and built the Investment Solutions unit within SST. He began his career in 2003 at Glencore in London, later trading exotic index options and hybrid bonds for Commerzbank–Dresdner in the UK until 2011, before relocating to Switzerland.
Before joining Vontobel, he headed Global Trading at Leonteq.
With this move, Vontobel is once again opting for a dual leadership in SST. The bank is one of the few led by two co-CEOs: Christel Rendu de Lint and Georg Schubiger.
