Swiss wealth manager Pictet appoints first female partner in 200-year history

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss wealth and asset manager Pictet Group on Monday appointed Elif Aktug as managing partner, the first woman to hold that position in the private bank's 216-year history.

Francois Pictet will also become a managing partner from September pending regulatory approval for the two, which would expand the number of partners to nine, Geneva-based Pictet said in a statement.

The Pictet Group is a partnership of owner-managers, with principles of succession and transfer of ownership that have not changed since its foundation in 1805. It had 609 billion Swiss francs ($661.09 billion) under management or custody at the end of 2020.

Aktug has been with Pictet since 2011 as the lead fund manager of Pictet Asset Management's Agora, a 2.5 billion euro ($2.97 billion) European equity strategy. Prior to that, she was a managing director with Goldman Sachs in London.

Francois Pictet joined the firm in 2015 as part of the Pictet Investment Office, the ultra-high-net-worth investment arm of Pictet Wealth Management.

"We're delighted to welcome Elif and François to the Board of Partners, a step we've been planning since the end of 2020 to help manage the increased demands resulting from the strong growth of the firm," senior managing Partner Renaud de Planta said.

($1 = 0.8408 euros)

($1 = 0.9212 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Bernadette Baum)