The Swiss private bank's long-standing finance chief will step down mid-year and hand over to his deputy.

Julius Baer finance chief Dieter Enkelmann will step down on July 1 and be replaced by deputy Evie Kostakis, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. She represents a rare woman in the top finance function of a Swiss bank and just the second woman in Julius Baer's top management, besides Latin America chief Beatriz Sanchez.

Kostakis, who is 45, has been Enkelmann's deputy for nearly two years and represents Julius Baer on the board of crypto bank Seba. She joined the Swiss wealth manager in 2013 as deputy head of corporate development and strategy and went on to deputize at investment management and run alternative investments.

The 62-year-old Enkelmann, finance chief of Julius Baer since 2006, was a linchpin through all of its major deals including its 2012 acquisition of Merrill Lynch's private bank outside the U.S. He will take on undisclosed non-executive roles outside the bank after stepping down, Julius Baer said.

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