The Swiss banking lobby is hiring a former elite athlete to spearhead a push on sustainable finance out of Geneva.
The Swiss Bankers Association, or SBA, is deepening its expertise on sustainable finance, hiring Alexandre Roch as its first employee for a new office in Geneva, the industry lobby group said in a statement on Thursday. Roche is a graduate of Lausanne's prestigious technical university EPFL as well as a former elite middle-distance runner for Switzerland.
«This move strengthens the SBA's links not only with Geneva's financial center but with the numerous international organizations based in the area,» the group said. Roch, who graduated with a Masters in atmospheric and climate science, has worked for wealth manager Pictet, where he began his career as a summer intern, as well as Indosuez Wealth Management, the private banking arm of Crédit Agricole.
New Swiss Guidelines
He is the founder and coach of Xtra Mile Running, a Geneva-based sports training company. Roch will work in the SBA branch in the offices of the Fondation Genève Place Financière, a lobby for financial services in Geneva.
His hire comes against the backdrop of new guidelines from the SBA for banks to bake environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, criteria into their investment advice. The SBA on Thursday pinpointed ten areas for improving conditions of the framework, including transparency, credit, and investment. The move is an industry bid to benefit from what experts predict is a boom in sustainable investment.
