A change at the top
Yesterday, SSPA delegates unanimously voted in favor of Credit Suisse’s Daniel Sandmeier as Association president. He follows in the footsteps of founding president Roger Studer, who stood down after two terms of office. Association vice-president Paolo Vanini also did not seek reelection. Executive director Eric Wasescha resigned as well, effective April 2011. All three will continue to serve the SSPA as consultants.
Zurich, September 29, 2010. At yesterday’s delegates’ assembly, SSPA committee members Esther Thoma of UBS, Lucas Bruggeman of RBS and Daniel Sandmeier of Credit Suisse were confirmed for a further two-year term as committee members. Georg von Wattenwyl, Head of Financial Products Advisory & Distribution at Bank Vontobel, is to take Mr. Studer’s seat on the committee, while Claudio Topatigh, Head of Structured Product Sales Group at ZKB, is to replace Mr. Vanini. Roger Studer handing over… Following his second statutory two-year term of office, Head of Investment Banking and Executive Management member of Bank Vontobel Roger Studer, and Paolo Vanini, Head of Structured Product Trading and Sales at ZKB, both chose to step down. The delegates expressed their thanks to the departing president and vice-president yesterday for their contribution to Switzerland’s structured products market. They will continue their association with SSPA, Mr. Studer as the Swiss representative and vice-president of pan-European organization Eusipa, Mr. Vanini as head of SSPA’s risk commission. Mr. Studer: «Looking back on the milestones of the past few years fills me with pride. Some of our innovations, including the Swiss Derivative Map, the Risk Figure and Collateral Security for structured products (COSI), have made history and asset management would be poorer without them.» Mr. Vanini: «In maintaining our links with SSPA, Mr. Studer and I express a belief that the Association’s work is an important contribution to Switzerland’s structured products market.» … to Daniel Sandmeier The delegates yesterday elected Daniel Sandmeier, Credit Suisse’s Head of Structured Products Marketing & Distribution, as the SSPA’s new president, to succeed Roger Studer. Mr. Sandmeier has been engaged in the trade, structuring and sale of structured products for more than 20 years. His focus at Credit Suisse is marketing of structured products in Switzerland. A member of the SSPA Committee since 2007, he is looking forward to his new assignment: «Structured products are an important part of private and institutional asset management and the SSPA has made a great contribution in Switzerland. One of my goals is to continue to raise awareness and acceptance of structured products through targeted innovation and knowledge transfer.» RBS’s Lucas Bruggemann, who has been a member of SSPA’s committee since the Association’s founding, is to be its new vice-president. For the past six years Mr. Bruggemann was Head of Structured Products Marketing in Switzerland for RBS (formerly ABN AMRO Bank). During the preceding ten years he held trading positions at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London and now, in Zurich. Farewell to SSPA’s executive director after five years of laying the groundwork At yesterday’s delegates’ assembly, effective April 2011 Eric Wasescha resigned as SSPA’s (parttime) executive director, a post he has held since the Association’s founding in April of 2006. The delegates’ assembly and committee expressed its regret and thanked him for laying the groundwork, which has established SSPA as the contact of choice for structured products in Switzerland. Mr. Wasescha: «Working for SSPA was a pleasure but after five years of doing the groundwork, the time has come to reduce the load a bit.» Mr. Wasescha, too, will be available to the Association as a consultant. The committee is currently evaluating candidates and will announce a successor to Mr. Wasescha as soon as possible.
