Until recently Marisa Drew was a high-flying investment banker at Credit Suisse. Now she has been charged by Chief Executive Tidjan Thiam to help make the world a better place. A career damper?
She confesses surprise too at her new posting. The 53-year old American has worked at Credit Suisse (CS) for 14 years, becoming one of the most powerful woman at Switzerland’s second-largest bank. Most recently she co-led the investment bank division IBCM within Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
She left this influential job at the end of September. CEO Tidjane Thiam has instead entrusted her with leading the newly formed Impact Advisory and Finance (IAF) unit, as finews.ch reported.
The new division will coordinate investments with a social return and thus support the bank’s philanthropic consulting services. The unit’s targets will be both private and institutional clients.
An Investment Bank Through and Through
A hard-nosed investment banker, and investments with a socially ethical return: This doesn’t seem possible at first glance. One of Drew’s achievement to date was developing the private credit market business in Europe into a billion-sized business. An investment-bank-field par excellence, where astute structures and calculations, rather than ‘green’ factors, were key.
«This has aroused much curiosity» from those around her, Drew told «Euromoney» magazine. Still, Drew doesn’t need to fear her new role, and her understanding of the new challenge shows she remains an investment banker through and through.
«Impact Investing reminds me of the early days of leveraged finance in Europe», says Drew. There was then an enormous demand for foreign capital, but there was a lack of structures to gather the funds. Impact Investing faces a similar challenge, to build a bridge between the rich and the poor, according to Drew.
«The Timing is Right»
Indeed Impact-Investing-Initiatives have a ‘luxury problem’ as finews.ch has also reported. Often there is a lack of products and qualified receivers to handle the available philanthropic funds. This structural bottleneck is ideally suited to a banker of Drew’s caliber. «We must create new structures so we can tackle problems in a way we haven’t been able to up to now», she explains.
The timing is now right, Drew believes. A younger generation of private and wealthy individuals want to do more good with their money. Pension funds are also facing pressures from members to do more. It is only natural that CS in its leading role should expand into the Impact Investing field.
UBS with big plans
There is now competition developing in the banking sector for sustainable investments. Swiss arch-rival UBS recently said it aims to «industrialise» sustainable investments, and will be utilizing all its divisions to achieve this. In Asset Management «aggressive» jobs are now being created toward that end.
Drews main challenge will now also be to channel the skills and resources of CS’s divisions. Private Banking und Investment Banking must work more closely together, despite differing cultures. That at least is what CEO Thiam wants.
At Thursday’s Investor Day he said that in future the Investment Bank will provide more support to asset management. Still, isn’t this a career setback for someone whom the BBC rated as one of the 100 most powerful women in Great Britain? Drew sees the appointment as a challenge: «We have the chance of building an entirely new market.»
