Jan Schoch, co-founder and CEO of the derivatives specialist Leonteq is stepping aside. Asian business will become more important.

Swiss investment solutions provider Leonteq, announced on Friday that its CEO and founder Jan Schoch is stepping donwn. Marco Amato, so far deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed as Leonteq’s CEO on an ad interim basis. The search for a new permanent CEO has been initiated, the company said.

Schoch will take over the role as Senior Advisor Strategic Growth Initiatives and will no longer be a member of the Executive Committee. «Going forward, I will exclusively concentrate on Leonteq’s strategic growth initiatives,» he said.

New Chairman With Man Background

In addition, Christopher Chambers has been nominated as new chairman, and Paulo Brügger and Thomas «Tom» Meier are nominated as new members of the Board of Directors, at an extraordinary general meting to be held on 22 November 2017. Chambers is going to replace Pierin Vincenz who announced earlier this year his intention to step down.

Chambers, a Swiss and British national, began his career in investment banking in 1990, before becoming CEO of Man Investments and a main Board member of Man Group in 2002. He is currently a Senior Advisor to Lone Star Europe, and a member of the Boards of Swiss Prime Site, Oxford Science Innovation, Pendragon, Lonrho and Berenberg Bank (Switzerland).

New Asian Flavour

Swiss national Tom Meier, is well known in Asia. He served as CEO Asia and a member of the Executive Board of Bank Julius Baer from 2005 to 2015, as head of Private Wealth Management and a member of the Management Board of Deutsche Bank (Luxembourg) and, prior to that, as CEO North Asia at Credit Suisse. After his return to Switzerland, Meier became head of Corporate Sustainability at Julius Baer and he currently serves as chairman of the Julius Baer Foundation.

Having Meier on board bringing his substantial Asian expertise and regional connections, Leonteq's Asian business, which has been losing momentum, could become an even more important contributor.