Swiss Sustainable Funds Awards 2021

René Sieber

Chairman of the jury – Adjunct Professor, Geneva Finance Research Institute, University of Geneva

René Sieber holds a Ph.D. in Economic and Social Sciences from Geneva University. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Economics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.

René Sieber has an experience of more than 30 years in the field of asset management. He has been a founding member and managing director of Dynagest SA, a Geneva based Swiss Asset Management Company that featured during several years among the European Top 400 Asset Managers*. Head of quantitative portfolio insurance investments, he was also supervising fixed income management and research.

For more than 30 years René Sieber has lectured in finance at University of Geneva where he also co-heads the new DAS in Asset Management. He has been appointed adjunct professor in 2019. Since 1991, he has also taught on fixed income investing at the Swiss Training Centre for Investment Professionals (AZEK).

Among his other mandates, since 2002, René Sieber has been a Director of Ethos Services SA, the operating company of Ethos, Swiss Foundation for Sustainable Development, which has been promoting socially responsible investment (SRI) since 1997. He chairs its Asset Management Committee.

*Ranking established by the reference magazine Investment and Pensions Europe (IPE).

Personal page : https://www.renesieber.ch/index.php/en/

Stéphanie de Mestral

Member of the jury – Senior Vice President, De Pury Pictet Turrettini & Cie

Stéphanie de Mestral joined de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Cie in 2014. She was previously in charge of key clients in the private banking division at BNP Paribas. She started her professional career at Morgan Stanley in New York, London and Zurich and, thereafter, was involved in institutional asset management at Lombard Odier in Geneva.

Stéphanie is a CFA charterholder and a member of the Swiss CFA Institute. She holds a master in economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and a master in international management from CEMS/University Luigi Bocconi, Milan. She is a US Stock Broker License (Series 7), New York and a SFA General Representative, London. Since 2019, she holds a Certificate in Advanced Studies in impact finance/investment ODDs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Suzanna Gobet

Member of the jury – Co-Head of Wealth Management Geneva, Bedrock S.A

Suzanna Gobet joined Bedrock S.A in 2005 as a portfolio manager and is now co-head of the wealth management department in Geneva. Previously, she worked at Blue Orchard as a business analyst and was involved in institutional asset management at Lombard Odier, both in Geneva. Suzanna has also participated in various projects at the World Bank and UNICEF.

Suzanna holds a master’s degree in economics from Geneva University. She is currently pursuing the STEP Diploma in International Trust Management; (Trust & Estate Practitioner TEP).

Joerg Grossmann

Member of the jury – Global Head of Products and Strategic Alliances, Allfunds

Joerg Grossmann is a member of the Executive Committee of Allfunds with global responsibility for Products and Strategic Alliances. Before joining Allfunds, Joerg was CEO of Credit Suisse InvestLab AG which included global responsibility for fund selection. In prior roles at Credit Suisse he assumed responsibility for product, sales and pricing strategies. Prior to Credit Suisse, Joerg worked for 2 years at UBS and for 8 years at The Boston Consulting Group as a strategy consultant. Joerg holds a Master Degree in Physics and a Master Degree in International Management.

Frank Juliano

Member of the jury – Head of Asset Management and member of the Executive Committee, Compenswiss

Frank Juliano began his career in 1994 at UBS, with assignments in Geneva as well as in New York. In 1998, he joined Syz Bank to build up and run the portfolio management department. In 2000, he moved to Lombard Odier as Senior Advisor, then focused on alternative investments. In 2006, he was taken on by Merrill Lynch to oversee the bank’s alternative investments, creating model portfolios and managing alternative mandates. Eventually he became Head of Portfolio Management and joined the bank’s Executive Committee, as well as the staff pension fund’s Board of Trustees. In 2012, Frank joined compenswiss, the Swiss Federal Social Security Funds (AuM CHF 37bn), as Head of Asset Management and member of the Executive Board.

Frank has a Master of Advanced Studies in Econometrics and Statistics from the University of Geneva. He also received the diploma from the Swiss Financial Analysts Association and was awarded best candidate in 1997. He remains today a member of the Examination Commission for this internationally recognized diploma. Since 2016 he is also a Board Member of the Swiss Association for Responsible Investments.

Mirjam Staub-Bisang

Member of the jury – Managing Director, Country Head, BlackRock Switzerland

Mirjam Staub-Bisang, Managing Director, is Country Head of BlackRock Switzerland and a member of the EMEA Executive Committee as well as a Senior Advisor to BlackRock Sustainable Investing (BSI).

Prior to BlackRock, Mirjam was CEO and co-founder of Independent Capital Group AG an investment management firm focusing on sustainable investing based in Zurich. Mirjam also served as a non-executive director on the boards of several public and private companies and was chairwoman and member of the investment committees of several institutional investors such as pension funds and endowments. Prior to these roles she held senior positions in asset management and private equity at Commerzbank, Swiss Life, Quadrant and Merrill Lynch in London and Zurich.

Today She serves on the board of INSEAD and Bata as a non-executive director.
Mirjam holds a PhD in Law from the University of Zurich and an MBA from INSEAD. She authored the standard work „Sustainable Investing for Institutional Investors” (NZZ 2011), ”Sustainable Investing for Institutional Investors: Risks, Regulations, Strategies“” (Wiley 2012) and co-authored the second edition of “Infrastructure as an Asset Class” (Wiley 2016).

In 2009 she was nominated a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Beatrix Wullschleger

Member of the jury – Specialist for sustainable investments at the Basel-Stadt Pension Fund

Beatrix Wullschleger is Specialist in sustainable investments at the Basel-Stadt Pension Fund.

Previously, Beatrix Wullschleger was a research assistant and speaker at the University of Applied Sciences FHNW in Basel. As a specialist in sustainable investment, she was also Editor-in-Chief of Swisscanto.

Beatrix Wullschleger holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of St. Gallen.