Last week, the Board of Directors of Vontobel Holding AG decided to nominate Björn Wettergren, et al., as a new member of the board. The fourth generation of the owner family is thus entering the board of directors of the private Swiss bank.

As a partner and shareholder of etventure Holding, Björn Wettergren manages our etventure location in Zurich. In particular, he drives the startup and corporate development business of etventure in Switzerland.

We are pleased that Björn Wettergren was nominated on December 16, 2015, for election to the Board of Directors of Vontobel Holding. Before Wettergren came to etventure, he had already been active at the bank in the framework of various innovation projects, and now he is contributing the digitization expertise of etventure. “At etventure, we’re currently seeing every day how the business models of established companies in various sectors are being put to the test by startups as well as by established Internet giants,” says Wettergren. “In the financial sector, the digital transformation is in full swing: fintechs, on the one hand, but also the first established banks, on the other hand, are going all in on this trend. They have to, because fintechs and the large Internet players are already active in the market with radically user-centered, digital business models. I’m very much looking forward to the work and the challenge, and I’d like to pass on my experience and expertise.”

Philipp Depiereux, founder and managing director of etventure, comments: “We’re very active in this field as a digital consultant and company builder with FintechStars, the etventure knowledge unit for the financial sector, with the recent founding of the fintech incubator FinTechCube, and last but not least, with the joint venture with Wüstenrot & Württembergische. At etventure, we identify and develop innovative business models and build them up in behalf of companies or as our own startups. There are massive upheavals in store for the financial sector. As someone who knows these things, Björn Wettergren is absolutely the right choice to address the digital challenges with Bank Vontobel.”

Many media have reported on the nomination, including the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.