An investment banker with a past in U.S. special forces is leaving Credit Suisse in the U.S. A loss for Switzerland’s second-largest bank.
Chris Gaertner (pictured left) is leaving Credit Suisse (CS) for a job at Rothschild & Co., the bank said in a statement. Gaertner is specialized in advising Silicon Valley firms. The U.S. banker joined CS in 2012, leaving rival Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Gaertner moves to Rothschild together with another CS banker, Walid Khiari, who had already been close to Gaertner at Bank of America Merril Lynch.
New Rothschild Branch in San Francisco
Rothschild appointed Gaertner as the head of its new branch in San Francisco, which will open in August. Through the branch, and with Gaertner, Rothschild gains a direct access to Silicon Valley tech firms and billionaires.
Gaertner has more than 30 years of experience in the tech industry and has advised companies including Microsoft, Intel, HP, Ansys, Cisco, Oracle, Palantir, Dell, Google, Adobe, Apple, IBM and Amazon.
Navy Seal and Ranger Pedigree
Banking still has been only the second career of the U.S. citizen. Gaertner studied at the Westpoint military academy and is a graduate of several special unit courses of the U.S. military. He for instance went through training with the Navy Seals, the Rangers as well as the parachute division.
The departure of the special force banker will come as a blow to CS, because of his first-class network as well as because it’s yet another loss to the tech team at the investment bank in the U.S. Departures at the unit had even been met with legal tussles with rivals recently.
