Credit Suisse vice chairman to exit in board revamp in wake of scandals
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About a year after the Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital scandals, Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) Vice Chairman Severin Schwan is leaving the bank's board, as Kai Nargolwala and Juan Colombas also decide not to stand for re-election to the supervisory body. The board has proposed adding three new members for election at the company's annual meeting in April.
Christian Gellerstad will become vice chair and lead director, taking over from Schwan, who has held the twin roles since 2017. Gellerstad will also take on Nargolwala's spot as chair of the compensation committee.
The board is proposing Mirko Bianchi, Keyu Jin, and Amanda Norton for election as non-executive members of the board at Credit Suisse's (CS) annual meeting on April 29, 2022. The board intends to appoint Bianchi as chair of the audit committee. Norton would join the board on July 1, subject to her election at the annual meeting.
The board intends to name Richard Meddings, who is the current chair of the audit committee, as chair of the risk committee. He'll succeed Axel Lehmann, who was named chairman on Jan. 16. 2022.
Bianchi was most recently with UniCredit (OTCPK:UNCFF), where he served in a number of finance roles such as chief financial officer; he was most recently CEO of UniCredit's Wealth Management and Private Banking. Jin is a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. Norton most recently served as chief risk officer at Wells Fargo (WFC).
The board shakeup comes less than three months after Antonio Horta-Osório, who was brought on to help the bank get past its Archegos and Greensill debacles, was ousted as Credit Suisse (CS) chairman after he violated Swiss and U.K. COVID quarantine rules.