Citywealth Leaders List, 60 seconds interview – Dr Miro Mitev, Smart Wealth Asset Management, Zurich
This week’s 60 seconds Citywealth Leaders List interview is dedicated to Dr Miro Mitev, Founder and CEO of Smart Wealth Asset Management, Zurich.
Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.
As CEO, I oversee the development and deployment of our AI-driven investment strategies. My role is to ensure the AI system operates effectively within the strategic boundaries we define, maintaining discipline around risk, liquidity, and portfolio construction.
A significant part of my time is also dedicated to working closely with our investors, LPs, and strategic partners. Asset management is ultimately a relationship-driven industry, so maintaining strong connections with institutional investors and ensuring they feel informed, supported, and confident in the process is essential. This involves regular dialogue, explaining how the technology works, how the strategies are positioned across market cycles, and ensuring our partners fully understand the framework behind the system.
Beyond this, I focus on the long-term vision for how AI can reshape the asset management industry. That means ensuring the technology continues to evolve alongside markets and investor needs, while maintaining transparency, efficiency, robustness, and the fiduciary discipline expected by our clients.
What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day starts at 6:30 a.m. with a 3 km jog along the Limmat River and Lake Zurich to my office and ends at 6:30 p.m. with a 3 km jog back home. My day is a combination of oversight, client engagement, and ongoing evaluation of the investment process and portfolios. While the AI technology handles the day-to-day portfolio decisions, my role is to ensure that the framework around it continues to function exactly as intended.
That begins with reviewing the outputs of the models and the positioning of our strategies to ensure they remain aligned with the parameters we have defined, risk limits, liquidity requirements, and the broader investment universe. Even though the system is fully automated, it is essential to maintain continuous supervision of how forecasts translate into portfolio allocations and execution.
Another important part of the day is engaging with institutional clients and partners. Many investors are curious about how AI can be applied in a disciplined way within asset management, so a significant amount of time is spent explaining the process, the technology behind it, and how it behaves across different market environments.
Tell us about some recent, interesting client instructions/requests you have received.
Recently, several pension funds asked how our AI model could navigate periods of inflation pressure while maintaining daily liquidity and capital preservation. They wanted reassurance that drawdowns could be mitigated without sacrificing returns. In response, we demonstrated how the system dynamically adjusts exposure, rotates assets asset classes and sectors, and increases cash positions when early warning indicators appear. A Family Office requested a deeper understanding of diversification across non-correlated assets, which led us to show historical stress-test scenarios over multiple market cycles. These requests reinforce that institutional investors are looking for predictable outcomes rather than speculative gains, and our AI is uniquely positioned to deliver that.
What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?
Institutional clients face a persistent tension between achieving meaningful returns and adhering to strict regulatory and risk constraints. They operate under regulatory requirements and demographic pressures that limit flexibility. Many are also affected by behavioural biases and team turnover. Our AI system addresses these challenges by removing human subjectivity from daily investment decisions, dynamically and efficiently adjusting allocations, and providing robust, repeatable outcomes across market cycles. We focus on enhancing risk-adjusted returns without increasing overall portfolio risk, helping clients meet their obligations to beneficiaries while maintaining stability, governance and liquidity.
What is your proudest professional achievement?
My proudest achievement is watching my PhD research turn into a fully operational AI system trusted by institutional investors across 25+ years of market cycles. Transforming decades of research into a practical tool that demonstrably improves long-term outcomes for pension funds and insurance clients is deeply rewarding. It validates the principle that disciplined, AI-driven investing can reconcile stability and performance without compromise on risk and regulation.
What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?
Clarity of vision, disciplined execution, and integrity are essential. A leader must understand complex systems deeply, set clear boundaries, and remain accountable. In the investment world, patience is also critical especially when managing long-term fiduciary responsibilities. Equally, the ability to empower teams while ensuring decisions are data-driven, consistent, and resilient distinguishes effective leadership.
Who do you most admire and why?
A figure I have always admired is Jim Simons.
What I respect most about him is how he transformed quantitative research into one of the most successful investment approaches in history. Simons demonstrated that disciplined, data-driven models could uncover patterns in financial markets that traditional methods often miss.
His work helped show that combining mathematics, computing power, and rigorous scientific thinking could fundamentally change how investment decisions are made, an idea that continues to shape the evolution of quantitative and AI-driven asset management today.
Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?
My last work trip was to Schloss Rettershof in Germany, where together with our Lead LLP and ancore investor in our Multi Asset Flagship, I participated in Family Office Day hosted by Bund Institutioneller Investoren. We presented a family office case study demonstrating how an AI-based Multi Asset Strategy can provide a practical solution to complex investment dilemmas, highlighting the benefits of disciplined, data-driven decision-making in multi-generational wealth management.
If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?
Given my background, I would work in academia or applied AI research, focusing on systems optimization or predictive analytics. Solving real-world problems with rigorous, data-driven methodologies has always been a driving passion.
How do you relax after a long day?
After a long day, I find it important to focus on activities that help me reset both physically and mentally.
Exercise plays a big role in that. I enjoy running and staying active, as it helps to re-focus the mind after a day spent analysing data and strategy.
Spending time with family and friends is equally important. Sharing a healthy vegetarian meal, having meaningful conversations helps restore balance.
For me, maintaining both physical health and mental clarity is essential, especially in a field like asset management where clear and sharp thinking as well as discipline are so important.
If you could recommend one person in the private wealth industry who would it be, and what would you say about them?
I have always admired the Wallenberg family from Sweden.
For more than a century, the Wallenberg family has played a defining role in shaping European industry and finance through institutions such as Investor AB and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. What stands out is their long-term approach to capital allocation, supporting companies across generations rather than focusing on short-term gains.
Their network and influence continue to be highly relevant today, particularly in connecting industrial development, innovation, and financial capital across Europe.
In an industry often driven by short-term cycles, the Wallenberg model demonstrates the value of patience, stewardship, and a genuinely long-term perspective on building and sustaining economic value.
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