Peter Sands: Standard Chartered CEO

Peter Alexander Sands was born in the United Kingdom on January 8, 1962.  The life of Peter and his parents have been strongly influenced by what was once the British Empire. His parents, although British nationals, were both born in Asia; Peter’s father was born in Malaysia which was a British colony until 1957 and his mother was born in India which was also a former British colony.

While still a baby Peter was taken to Malaysia and spent the majority of his life away from the United Kingdom, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore. In 1984 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brasenose College at Oxford. Peter’s career began in the public sector as a trainee at Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He left to further his studies taking a Harkness Fellowship at Harvard University to earn a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government.

Peter then joined management consulting firm McKinsey in its London Office in 1988. He rose through the ranks and became a partner in 1996 and became a director in 2000.  Standard Chartered, a client of McKinsey, hired Peter as Group Finance Director in 2002. He was appointed four year later in 2006 as Group Chief Executive Officer.

Standard Chartered experienced strong growth partly under Peter’s leadership. The bank highlights the fact that more than 90 percent of its income and profit come from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This structure enabled it to perform much better than other banks during the economic downturn including having record profits in 2009. It is reported that Peter devised the British bank rescue plan which was copied around the world.  

Peter is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of International Finance, the global association of financial institutions, and chairman of their Special Committee on Effective Regulation. In 2009 he was appointed by the British government to the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance.

Standard Chartered is one of the world’s most international banks with more than 1,600 branches, offices and outlets in 70 countries.

Luiz Trabuco Cappi: Banco Bradesco CEO

Born on October 6, 1951, Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi began working when he was 12 years old at a textile factory before joining a small department store in Marilla, a coffee-producing town around 250 miles west of Sao Paulo. He spent his early years running errands to Banco Bradesco, the second-largest non-government bank in Brazil.  Perhaps even then he already harbored thoughts of running the bank one day.

Luiz graduated from Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras de Sao Paulo, with a graduate degree in Social Psychology at Fundacao Escola de Sociologia e Politica de Sao Paulo. In April 1969, he finally began his career at Bradesco where he once ran errands to as a young boy.  He has held a number of positions with the banking sector. Luiz has held the position of Chief Financial Officer, heading Bradesco Insurance where he excelled and ultimately responsible for the listing of Bradesco at Level 2 in the New York Stock Exchange.

On October 10, 2009 Luiz became the Chief Executive Officer of Banco Bradesco.

Sergio Ermotti: Swiss Banker

Sergio Ermotti was born in Lugano, Switzerland on May 11, 1960. Early in life he wanted to be a ski instructor then decided to follow his father’s footstep and began his career as a young apprentice at the Corner Bank in Lugano. In order to do this he left school at the age of 15.

Sergio became a stockbroker at the Corner Bank after his apprenticeship. Later he was promoted to trading. Sergio has a diploma as a Swiss Federal Banking Expert and a degree in the Advance Management Program at Oxford University.

Sergio has solid banking experience having worked for Citibank and Merrill Lynch. In the latter company he served as co-Head of Global Equity Markets and as a member of the Executive Management Committee for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Sergio joined UniCredit in December 2005. He was Deputy Executive Officer of the company from 2007 to 2010.

Sergio was appointed Chairman and CEO of UBS’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa group and became member of the Group Executive Board in April 2011. After being appointed interim Group CEO of UBS starting September 24, 2011 he was given this post permanently on November 15, 2011.

Sergio has taken a big challenge in leading UBS which not only suffered during the 2008 crisis but also had a scandal in its investment unit. He has also executed painful job cuts. There are signs that Sergio’s initiatives are beginning to bear fruit.