Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Vadim Neumann, ZEDRA
Citywealth interviews Vadim Neumann who manages ZEDRA’s Zug and Zurich offices and features in Citywealth’s Top 20 Trustees 2023.
Tell Citywealth’s readers about your role.
- I manage Zug and Zurich offices of ZEDRA.
- I am responsible for the onboarding of all the structures in the offices I manage.
- I can be considered as a ‘first line of defense’ with the RM team for first compliance checks and preparation of KYC/CDD files for all the new business.
- I work together with the marketing team on ZEDRA Zurich events.
- I have ultimate responsibility for Zurich P&L and commercial success of the office.
What are the most pressing issues you are dealing with in your role at the moment?
Among others, CDD is becoming more and more complex, new regulatory requirements are being introduced and it is often time consuming to prepare a very good and understandable KYC file for their onboarding. However, I work hand in hand with the RM teams and compliance to ensure a smooth process for the client but also internally.
How would your clients describe you?
- Professional and knowledgeable service provider, available 24/7 if necessary.
- Able to deliver with his team quickly and efficiently.
- Open and sympathetic.
- With a very personal approach.
What are the most important skills and personal qualities to succeed in your role?
I have a background and degrees in International Taxation, General Management and Business Law. This skill set certainly helps understand clients and their structures better and professionally operate in our business.
I am a positive person, thus also in difficult situations/under pressure I can help my team remain stable and deliver good service.
I also think that being a good listener is key.
ESG: Are your clients familiar with ESG? Are they behaving differently in the present scenario?
Some large global corporations have been the first to consider and apply ESG best practices but the wider trend of introducing ESG strategies inevitably trickles down to all businesses. While many appreciate the value of ESG, a PWC study published in 2021 reveals that only a third of the firms appears to have a strategy in place to concretely achieve it.
A sustainable business is one which can carry on doing what it does in a sustainable way over and over and over – forever.
Focusing on family businesses, with two-thirds of businesses worldwide owned or managed by families, understanding how to create a sustainable legacy is vital to family-owned businesses. Family businesses want to embrace ESG factors as part of more sustainable business models. The result is a more frank and open discussion about complex ESG themes. This involves both younger and older members of the family.
What is the most valuable piece of advice you have been given?
Do More. Achieve More. (Ⓒ ZEDRA)
Subscribe to Citywealth Weekly Newsletter to learn more about Private Wealth Management.
Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Alex Gibson-Watt, John Lamb Hill Oldridge
Citywealth speaks to Alex Gibson-Watt, Managing Director of John Lamb Hill Oldridge, firm which specialises in advising UHNW and HNW individuals, their family offices and other professional advisers on ways to mitigate liabilities with specialist insurance policies.