Pictet Taps Sagayam as 47th Managing Partner in 218-Year History

Banque Pictet & Cie nominated Raymond Sagayam to become a managing partner, as the Geneva-based private bank and asset manager undergoes an unusually rapid renewal of its leadership ranks.

(Bloomberg) — Banque Pictet & Cie nominated Raymond Sagayam to become a managing partner, as the Geneva-based private bank and asset manager undergoes an unusually rapid renewal of its leadership ranks.

Sagayam is set to join the council of owner-managers in January, which will bring the total to eight, according to a company statement late Wednesday. He becomes the 47th managing partner in the bank’s 218-year history.

Pictet, which manages more than 600 billion Swiss francs ($672 billion) in assets for wealthy clients and institutions, is radically changing the make-up of its leadership team. A Pictet partnership is a coveted spot in Swiss private banking, as holders of the position enjoy a share in the retained profits of the bank — often in the range of 20 million francs annually.

In 2021, Pictet’s first female partner Elif Aktug joined the members of the so-called ‘Salon,’ management team, alongside founding-family-member Francois Pictet. The addition of Sven Holstenson from next month was announced in September. Typically the bank elects a new partner every two years. But now, within just over two years, the bank will have replaced half of its ownership and management.

An increasing proportion of its partners now come from the investment management parts of the firm, rather than wealth, in a signal that the firm’s focus has shifted to fund management and institutional money.

Sagayam, who grew up in Washington D.C., Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Singapore and London, is the chief investment officer for fixed income in Pictet’s asset management unit. He also is the head of asset management for Pictet’s London presence. He joined the bank in 2010 from Swiss Re were he was a managing director.

Within the last half-year the bank announced that Remy Best, a partner for the last 20 years, is stepping down in May while Bertrand Demole, who has been a partner for more than a decade, will step down at the end of June.

The average tenure of an active partner is 20 years, as they typically stay well past retirement age. But once all the changes are in effect, 6 of the 8 partners will have a current tenure well below a decade. Senior managing partner Renaud de Planta has been a partner for 25 years.

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