Members of the Board of Directors and Committees
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Olivier Steimer, 1955, Swiss citizen |
| Education | Law degree from Lausanne University |
| Career experience | Chairman of the Board of Directors since 30 October 2002. After completing his university studies and a number of banking and finance internships, Mr. Steimer joined Credit Suisse where, from 1983 onwards, he was appointed to progressively increasing levels of responsibility as Head of the Nyon branch office and then Head of Investment Advisory Services in Lausanne. He held several positions in Los Angeles, New York and Zurich, and worked in the fields of wealth management and credit and financing services for both Swiss and foreign clients. In 1995, Mr. Steimer was given overall responsibility for Credit Suisse’s Geneva region and was appointed member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse Private Banking at Zurich headquarters in 1997. In 2001, he was named CEO of the Private Banking International Division and joined the Executive Board of Credit Suisse Financial Services. The following year, he was appointed member of the Credit Suisse Group Executive Board. |
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Jean-Luc Strohm, 1941, Swiss citizen |
| Education | Degrees in law and economics from Lausanne University |
| Career experience | Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1 January 2008. After completing his studies, Mr. Strohm began a long and varied banking career with UBS. He worked as a financial and credit-risk analyst in Zurich from 1966 to 1970 and managed a portfolio of commercial loans in Lausanne from 1970 to 1977. In 1978, Mr. Strohm was sent to Los Angeles to set up the UBS branch there, which he headed until 1982. He was then called back to Lausanne to set up and head the International Banking Department of UBS Lausanne, where, in 1985, he was put in charge of the Corporate Banking Department. Mr. Strohm left UBS in 1993 to become Director of the Lausanne-based Vaud Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a position which he held until June 2005. |
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Stephan A.J. Bachmann, 1946, Swiss citizen |
| Education | Certified accountant |
| Career experience | Mr. Bachmann joined the Board of Directors on 1 January 2008 and has chaired the Audit & Risk Committee since that date. After his initial banking training and periods in French-speaking Switzerland, England and Italy, he continued his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers and its predecessor firms. In 1969, he joined the Schweizerische Treuhandgesellschaft (STG) in Basel. This position led him to New York in 1975 to work for Coopers & Lybrand SA before returning to the Lausanne and Geneva offices. He was the head of Audit and Advisory in Switzerland from 1991 to 2006, first as a member of the Management Board of STG-Coopers & Lybrand SA and then, beginning in 1998, as a member of the Board of Directors of PricewaterhouseCoopers. As a certified public accountant and former licensed bank auditor, Mr. Bachmann has extensive experience in auditing both financial and manufacturing companies. |
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Beth Krasna, 1953, Dual Swiss and US citizen |
| Education | Degree in chemical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (EPFZ) Masters in Management from the Sloan School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Career experience | After five years at Philip Morris, Ms. Krasna spent ten years in the venture capital business, three years as a consultant and a further ten years in the corporate restructuring field as managing director of Valtronic in Les Charbonnières (1992-1996) and Symalit in Lenzburg. She served as CEO of Sécheron SA in Geneva (1998-2000) and of Lausanne-based software company Albert-Inc. SA (2001-2003). Since 2004, she has been an independent non-executive director for various companies. |
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Pierre Lamunière, 1950, Swiss citizen |
| Education | Degree in economics and business administration from Lausanne University MBA (specializing in finance and marketing) from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania |
| Career experience | Mr. Lamunière was elected by shareholders at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting held on 24 April 2008 and joined the Board of Directors on that date. After starting his career in 1971 as an auditor at Coopers & Lybrand in Basel and Milan, he occupied various posts at Edipresse Group beginning in 1977. Mr. Lamunière served as Vice Chairman of the Edipresse Board of Directors from 1982-2002 and has been Chairman of the Board since that time. He was also a member of the Board of Swiss Post from 1997 to 2002. |
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Luc Recordon, 1955, Swiss citizen |
| Education | Doctorate in law from Lausanne University and member of the Bar of Vaud Canton Degree in physics and a certificate in business management, both from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) |
| Career experience | Mr. Recordon worked as a lawyer for the Federal Office for Spatial Planning in 1980-1981 and spent the next two years as a sales engineer with Granit SA in Lausanne before setting up his own legal and technical consultancy. Mr. Recordon was admitted to the Bar in 1989 after two years as a trainee lawyer and was subsequently made a partner in a Lausanne law firm. |
| Name, year of birth and nationality | Paul-André Sanglard, 1950, Swiss citizen |
| Education | PhD in economics with a specialization in political economy from the University of Geneva |
| Career experience | After working as an assistant in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Geneva, Mr. Sanglard was employed as an economist in the Swiss Federal Office of External Economic Affairs. From 1978 to 1979, he was a research fellow at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1979, he was appointed Head of Jura Canton’s public revenue office. He became a lecturer in public finance at the University of Geneva in 1982, and between 1984 and 1989 he was a member of the World Economic Forum Executive Committee. Mr. Sanglard has been a freelance economist since 1989. |
Audit Committee (Audit & Risk Committee from 1 January 2010)
Following an in-depth review, the Board of Directors decided to transform the Audit Committee into an Audit & Risk Committee with effect from 1 January 2010. The aim is to expand this Committee's role in matters of risk management and control. Specifically, the Audit & Risk Committee assists the Board of Directors in assessing the various types of risk faced by BCV, and in structuring and organizing the Bank's risk management and control processes. It draws up opinions and recommendations for the Board after conducting a critical examination on a regular or periodic basis of the Group's main risks, the risk management policy and strategy, reports on risks and compliance with regulatory capital requirements.
In its new form, the Audit & Risk Committee consists of three members, namely Stephan A. J. Bachmann (Chairman), Paul- André Sanglard and Jean-Luc Strohm.
Compensation, Promotions and Appointments Committee
This Committee has also reviewed its operational procedures and duties in order to enhance its ability to assist the Board of Directors, particularly in HR strategy and employee transition management. It clarified its tasks in matters of defining profiles, selecting and proposing candidates for senior management and for board positions, setting and assessing objectives, and fixing compensation.
In 2009, the Compensation, Promotions and Appointments Committee consisted of Olivier Steimer (Chairman), Pierre Lamunière and Luc Recordon. The CEO takes part but has no vote.
Other Committees
The ad hoc committee formed in 2003 to handle all ongoing legal proceedings involving BCV’s former governing bodies continued to sit in 2009. This committee is composed of Luc Recordon (Chairman), Beth Krasna and Olivier Steimer.
In 2009, the Board of Directors created an Innovation & Opportunities Committee whose primary missions are to initiate and explore certain issues of strategic importance and, in the interest of BCV's clientele, to monitor the latest developments and trends in the banking industry. It also oversees corporate social responsibility within the Bank. The Committee, which consists of Beth Krasna (Chairperson), Olivier Steimer, Luc Recordon and Pascal Kiener, met twice in 2009.