SIX is naming ex-Swiss Re top executive Thomas Wellauer as its next chairman. The move marks a return to banking for the former McKinsey consultant and Credit Suisse banker.
The Zurich-based exchange operator will propose Thomas Wellauer as its new chairman at its shareholder meeting in March, it said in a statement on Thursday. He replaces Romeo Lacher, a former Credit Suisse banker who briefly chaired SIX before taking the top job at Julius Baer earlier this year.
The move marks a return to banking for the 64-year-old Wellauer, a veteran of Swiss finance who left his job as operating chief of Swiss Re in June. He began his career at McKinsey before defecting to Credit Suisse, where he was forced out in 2003 after a strategy to introduce affluent European clients foundered.
«Indestructible» Banker
Finance-friendly Swiss daily «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (in German) termed Wellauer «indestructible» due to his knack for reinvention. He is the third SIX chairman in four years, after Lacher and Alexander Zeller, who left the exchange to chair Credit Suisse's Swiss arm in 2016. Zeller is now a partner at Genevan Lombard Odier.
The stock exchange operator is embarking on SDX, an ambitious digital infrastructure project. SIX sold the majority of its payments arm to rival Worldline last year in order to better finance its digital push.
