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Governance
Chairman
Managing Partner of the Pictet Group from 1987 to 2016, Jacques de Saussure acted as Senior Managing Partner from 2010 until his retirement in June 2016. He remains a Member of the Supervisory Board of Pictet Group SCA as well as its main subsidiary, Banque Pictet & Cie SA. In 2018, Jacques was appointed to the Board of Salt Mobile SA, one the three leading telecom operators in Switzerland. During his banking career Jacques served on the board of several entities at the core of the Swiss financial services industry, including the Swiss Bankers Association, the Swiss Stock Exchange and SIX Group AG, as well as its subsidiary EUREX AG.
Jacques de Saussure is a Swiss national and lives in Geneva. Jacques holds a degree in Greek and Latin from Collège Calvin in Geneva, a degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and an MBA in Finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is fluent in French, English, and German.
Vice-president
Ms. Krasna is a professional independent non-executive director for various companies. Currently, she is on the board of directors of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (VP), the Graduate Institute in Geneva (VP), COOP, Ethos Services SA (President) and Xsensio SA. Formerly, among others, SBB/
CFF and Banque Cantonale Vaudoise.
Secretary
Me Ledermann is an expert in business law. He joined Lenz & Staehlin in Geneva in 1999 to become a partner in 2007. His practice areas are corporate, M&A, private equity, investments, contract and commercial.
Mr. Guillet has held top management and executive positions in the industrial and investment sectors and in private equity. He is currently Chairman of Adenia Partners a sub-Sahara focused private equity firm.
Lore Vandewalle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, where she holds the Pictet chair for finance and development. She is an applied micro-economist, specialized in development and political economics. Her research mainly focuses on financial inclusion and micro-enterprise development in India, Bangladesh and Uganda.
Me Vogt Scholler is specialized in banking and finance law. She joined Lenz & Staehelin in Geneva in 2006 to become Counsel in 2013. Her practice areas focus on banking and asset management regulations, including in respect of collective investment schemes and asset managers, as well as on anti-money laundering regulations.
Mr. Gera is the CEO of Gera & Partners (FS Digital strategy and transformation, Fintech business angel, social innovation). He sits in the Advisory Board of various Fintechs and Tech players. From 1987 to 2019 he was at Accenture, where he was in Global Leadership Council, and in the last 20 years Senior Managing Director of global businesses (FS Strategy, Distribution & Marketing). He served personally FS clients in most European countries, USA, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Japan, China and South East Asia
Piercarlo is Swiss and Italian national. He holds an MBA from Wharton Graduate Business School (Honor list) and a degree in Engineering from Politecnico di Milano
CEO
Prior to co-founding Symbiotics, Roland worked for BlueOrchard Finance as their CFO for three years, as well as for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Geneva in management consulting, for McKesson in San Francisco in corporate finance, and for UBS Switzerland in institutional asset management. He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute (IHEID) in Geneva and a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.
COO
Yvan joined Symbiotics in 2005. Prior to this, he worked for BlueOrchard Finance where he was the chief operations officer. Before this, he was a microfinance consultant in Peru and a small enterprise consultant in Western Africa and worked as a fund accountant at Capital International in Geneva. Yvan holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Geneva and a master’s degree in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics.
CFO
Formerly, Christophe worked for sixteen years for UBS in Lausanne, Geneva, Zurich and in New York in positions ranging from credit and recovery management, risk management and structured lending to client-facing activities in the Sub-Saharan African market. Christophe holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, a diploma of advanced studies (DAS) in commodity trading from the University of Geneva and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences, Lausanne.