In an industry dominated by big names like Boris Collardi and Sergio Ermotti, a little-known Swiss banker has carved out a niche by mixing start-up life and savvy investments with the corporate ladder.
On Running last month raised $746 million in its U.S. stock listing – enabling the Roger Federer-fronted sneaker manufacturer’s investors to cash out. They include the tennis star himself – but also reportedly Peter Fanconi (behind paywall), who chairs two Swiss banks as well as a specialist investment boutique.
Though the Swiss financier doesn’t appear on an annual run-down of Switzerland’s richest, On represents the fourth time Fanconi has successfully sold a firm. Little-known outside of Switzerland, Fanconi is impeccably connected within Switzerland, including with ex-Pictet partner Boris Collardi and the wealthy Greek shipping family, Latsis.
St. Moritz Vs Mongolia
He has shifted between being an entrepreneur and, occasionally, hopping on the corporate ladder, during a hugely lucrative nearly 25-year career in finance. He also moves easily between his home in St. Moritz and field trips to Cambodia, Mongolia, or Kyrgyzstan for Blue Orchard, an impact boutique he joined in 2012.
The nearly ten-year stretch has clearly made him wary of big finance’s response to inequality. «Do I believe firms are doing this out of conviction? No, is my blunt answer,» he told «Citywire» earlier this year. «Only a few have actually changed their DNA, for many others, it’s more a reaction to public and regulatory pressure.»
Hedge Fund Move
Fanconi would know: he has spent more than half of his career in Switzerland straddling finance and impact. After studying law in Zurich, Fanconi founded a consulting firm which he sold to PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2001.
The move made vaulted him to managing partner of the big-four firm in Switzerland – a role he held for two years before leaving for Harcourt, a Swiss hedge fund boutique. Fanconi and others cashed out after six years when Harcourt was sold to Vontobel.
Accumulation of Roles
The disposal paved the way to Vontobel’s top wealth management job in 2009 – a role he held for just three years before throwing in the towel following a period of uninspiring growth. Instead, he took the CEO job at Blue Orchard, which represents his longest period of corporate loyalty.
Fanconi orchestrated the microfinance and impact specialist’s sale to Schroders two years ago – the third time he had cashed out in his career. He remains as chairman of Blue Orchard, while also holding down chair jobs at two Swiss banks – an accumulation of jobs that have raised remarkably few eyebrows.
Avoiding Conflicts?
The Vontobel stint and the impact job made him a desirable board candidate for wealth managers – he joined Liechtensteinische Landesbank’s board just stayed for just eight months, until he was tapped oversee Graubuenden’s cantonal bank, GKB, in 2014.
The pattern repeated at Deutsche Bank’s Swiss arm, where he was vice-chair for two years until the Latsis family last year tapped him to oversee EFG International, its Swiss private bank. Fanconi has in the past said GKB and EFG are different enough for him to chair both without a conflict of interest.
