The star asset manager who relinquished a CEO job 15 months ago to become a full-time caregiver to three daughters is back.
Zurich-based Vontobel is nominating ex-Allianz Global Investors, Andreas Utermann to its board, it said Thursday in a statement devoted to its full-year financial results. The bank plans to put him forward to succeed long-standing chairman Herbert Scheidt from next year, it added.
Utermann stepped down from running Allianz's 535 billion euro ($650 billion) asset management arm late in 2019, in order to take care of his three relatively young children. The German and British asset manager is the highest-profile finance executive to leave a top job for become a primary caregiver to family – a move copied by Zalando co-CEO Rubin Ritter two months ago.
Understudy To Chairman
The trigger behind Utermann's decision – so that his wife could launch her interior design firm – generated more headlines at the time that the resignation itself. «It's my turn to take over [parenting],» he told «Wirtschaftswoche» (behind paywall, in German). «And that is fair.»
Fifteen months later, the 54-year-old is back as an understudy to Scheidt, who turns 70 this year, before taking over next year. Utermann is to chair both Vontobel's holding, controlled by descendants of the founding family, as well as the bank itself, helmed by CEO Zeno Staub.
No Time For Family
His wife's career wasn't Utermann's sole reason for stepping down from Allianz: he simply had no time to spend with his three daughters while they grew up, he told the German business outlet. «I was spending an unbelievable amount of time traveling and was rarely at home,» he said. He wouldn't take another job like running AllianzGI, he told the «Financial Times» (behind paywall).
«No one in the industry will remember in a few years whether I left now or in 2021,» he said. «But my oldest daughter will remember if I was around to take her to visit universities in the U.S. and Canada, and support her with her GCSEs.»
Spanner In The Works
The first two months of his new life as a full-time caregiver went according to plan. Utermann chaperoned his oldest to her first FIS alpine ski race in Bormio, Italy last year, he told «Manager Magazin» (behind paywall, in German) – the outlet pictured the «star fund manager» filling the recycling bin in front of his Hampstead home.
Covid-19 changed everything – the ski races and travel were off, and Utermann began helping his kids with remote learning. Utermann, who let go the family's landscaper and began doing the job himself, said the pandemic had a silver lining. «The kids need even more support,» he noted.
Private Interests, Public Job
To be sure, Utermann hired a housekeeper, which afforded him the time to devote to his private investments as well as real estate. «I don't want to be doing more than that at the moment,» he said last month.
The Swiss bank will change that: the job represents «an ideal opportunity as a successful and highly specialized global investment firm with an entrepreneurial spirit and a shareholder structure that promotes a long-term philosophy and approach,» Utermann told finews.com via a Vontobel spokesman.
