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Professional Profile

Marcel Bigger

A quick profile:

I started my professional career over 25 years ago with a Swiss bank apprenticeship, which, in retrospect, was a great foundation to build on. Apprenticeships in Switzerland were great then and are great today. I then moved into securities and currencies trading with a mid-sized but highly innovative Japanese brokerage firm. Japanese securities were all the rage then, and I had a great time. I did academia as a mature student, graduating from Purdue (the U.S. tech school) and LSE (the U.K. social science school). I enjoyed my time in Poland where I consulted the government on higher education funding. Subsequently, I had an interesting stint in the Swiss Federal Government with responsibilities in multilateral finance. I co-lead a small family business before starting a good 10-year run with a leading Swiss financial group with over CHF 50 billion under management. I left as the Group's Risk Officer on a planned longer sabbatical to the "Cradle of Humankind" in Africa.

 

My last key positions:

Swisscanto Group

Risk Officer
Swisscanto Group

Swisscanto Group manages assets of CHF 50 billion and is owned by the several cantonal banks of Switzerland. I held various positions within the Group starting as Project Manager in the Products Department. Eventually, I was promoted to Head of Information and Data Projects and subsequently took on new tasks as Deputy Head of Business Development for the entire Group.

At the end of my career at the Group, I held the newly created position of Risk Officer with the following responsibilities:

  • Developing and managing the infrastructure and processes for the measurement of market, credit and liquidity risks based on the MSCI RiskManager/RiskServer platform including the modeling of financial instruments, the parameterization and back testing of risk models, the compilation of risk analyses and other reports, the design of stress test scenarios for unusual market situations and the validation and maintenance of data and information flows to and from the central asset management system and the data warehouse on market and credit information.
  • Coaching the portfolio management teams in regard to market and credit risks.
  • Assuming responsibilities in connection with operational risk management including the execution of the comprehensive annual risk assessments of all business units of Swisscanto Group, the sourcing of information on business processes and internal controls in connection with risks, the assembly of the risk landscape of Swisscanto Group and the secretariat of the Operational Risk Committee of Swisscanto Group.
  • Discussing and initiating measures to optimize the risk profile of Swisscanto Group.
  • Reporting on market, credit, liquidity and other risks to the Executive Board.

 

Swiss Confederation

Desk Officer
Federal Department of Economic Affairs
Government of the Swiss Confederation

I held public office under the Swiss Confederation at the Federal Government's Department of Economic Affairs. As Desk Officer I managed the Government's relationship with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, the latter two members of the World Bank Group.

I was involved in the following work at the Department:

  • Formulating the Swiss public policy on investment projects, lending and other activities of the three multilateral financial institutions.
  • Preparing for and participating in inter-governmental conferences and general meeting of multilateral institutions.
  • Generating, appraising and managing the execution of technical assistance projects funded by federal trust funds.

 

Republic of Poland

Resident Advisor / Consulting Economist
Ministry of Finance
Government of the Republic of Poland

I worked for the Polish Ministry of Finance as a resident advisor/consulting economist under Under-Secretary of State Dr. Krzysztof J. Ners, involved in the following projects:

  • Conducting cost-benefit analyses of Poland's accession to the EU.
  • Designing and implementing a system of performance management for the Ministry.
  • Developing strategies on the future funding of higher education in Poland.
  • Readying dossiers for ministerial visits abroad.
  • Handling ad-hoc tasks given by the Under-Secretary of State.
     

 

Thank you for your interest.