Part British, Swiss and Italian, the charming John de Salis – who has degrees in philosophy from the Sorbonne and classics from Cambridge – is the Renaissance man of this index.
De Salis reports a ‘big’ 2019 for Geneva-based Mirabaud, with new offices in Abu Dhabi, Montevideo and Sao Paulo as well as the reinforcement of its private equity offering, which focuses on the emerging field of luxury sustainability.
‘We don’t suffer from the pressures of quarterly earnings,’ he says. We can take a 20-year view on all the investments we make.’ It’s been a torrid period, but clients ‘are happy to see that portfolios are holding up just fine’.