Credit Suisse Group AG ex-investment bank chief Christian Meissner is joining an advisory and private equity firm run by Byron Trott and Gregg Lemkau, marking his comeback after a tough period with the rescued Swiss lender.
(Bloomberg) — Credit Suisse Group AG ex-investment bank chief Christian Meissner is joining an advisory and private equity firm run by Byron Trott and Gregg Lemkau, marking his comeback after a tough period with the rescued Swiss lender.
Meissner is set to become a partner at the firm, backed by technology billionaire Michael Dell, and will focus on Europe. He’ll mainly be based in London. A spokeswoman for the firm confirmed his hiring.
Meissner was initially hired by Credit Suisse in Oct. 2020 to co-run a newly created group connecting clients of the wealth management unit with investment-banking services. He became investment bank head in 2021 after the Archegos Capital Management scandal forced out Brian Chin. He left in October as the bank announced what would ultimately be its last restructuring effort as an independent company.
Trott and Lemkau are combining the firms they led after departing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Trott’s merchant bank BDT & Co. is merging with billionaire Michael Dell’s MSD Partners, where Lemkau is chief executive officer.
The two entities have invested more than $50 billion since 2010. BDT focuses on providing advisory services to high net-worth families and their businesses and investing in family-owned companies. MSD, which grew out of Dell’s multibillion-dollar family office, invests in private firms, while also making credit, real estate and growth equity investments.
Trott started Chicago-based BDT in 2009 after almost three decades at Goldman. At Goldman he worked with some of the wealthiest and highest-profile individuals and families in the US, from Warren Buffett to the Pritzkers, Waltons and Kochs.
A billionaire in his own right, Trott gained a measure of fame after Buffett praised him in a letter to investors.
Meissner spent much of the previous decade at Bank of America, departing in 2018 amid a fierce internal debate as the firm’s most senior leadership reassessed and reined in exposure to some deals. Educated at Princeton, he spent his early career at Goldman where he climbed the ranks of its equity capital markets business and made partner in the same class as Lemkau in 2002.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. lured him away in 2003, where he helped oversee investment banking operations in Germany and eventually the broader region, including Europe and the Middle East. His rise was temporarily derailed when the firm, dragged down by the U.S. housing market, collapsed in September of 2008.
Meissner’s exit from Credit Suisse in October came as the bank fleshed out details of a plan to bundle its best-performing investment banking businesses under the revived First Boston branding. The lender’s emergency takeover by larger rival UBS Group AG in March crushed those spin out plans, under financier Michael Klein.
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