Decision Makers
Luxembourg

 

 

Career orientation

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Daniel Siepmann has spent nearly a quarter-century in the banking and investment industries in his native Cologne, in Zurich and since 2014 in senior executive management roles in the asset servicing industry in Luxembourg. But sport has been as important a thread running through his life. As a boy, he says, hockey (and skiing) was “everything” – he was good enough a hockey player to make it to Germany’s first division, but at 19 he realised he would not be a first-choice starter and took up golf instead. At the same time, the young Siepmann was finding his career orientation: he considered architecture – still a keen area of interest – as well as becoming a doctor or an auditor.

 

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Fund expertise

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He trained as a banker with Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie, where he spent the first seven years of his career, while taking master degrees in business administration and economics at the University of Cologne. He added a doctorate at Fribourg in Switzerland after moving to Zurich to join the local subsidiary of a German bank. Siepmann then spent more than five years as a senior management consultant with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, which integrated into BearingPoint during this time, then four-and-a-half as head of business technology for Julius Baer’s European asset management business before joining Credit Suisse in 2008, where he was first involved in building a fund hub in the Grand Duchy, and later on becoming CEO of the local fund services unit in 2014. In 2022 he moved on to VP Bank Group, for which he is running and further developing its fund business out of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

 

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Life lessons on the golf course

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Siepmann makes the most out of his time outside the office, too, whether travelling (Engadine, Dubai, South Africa, and Italy are his current favorite places), reading Thomas Mann, or on the ski slopes. He says: “I like the speed and freedom to choose your direction – there’s nothing better than being up in the mountains, looking far into the distance.” He also goes jogging to keep his mind fresh and creative. And in the far future he sees himself less in the financial sector but running a private business such as a golf club, perhaps in South Africa to escape the grey and foggy European autumn and winter. According to Siepmann, golf offers not only insights into the personalities of one’s playing partners but important life lessons. “You simply have to play the ball as it lies,” he says. “It makes no sense to argue – you just learn from it, adapt your strategy and try again on the next tee.” Great that since two years he is also taking his young daughter to the golf course – being sure that she will "drive him out" in a couple of more years.

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FACTS&FIGURES

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• Birthday: 30. November 1967

• Place of birth: Cologne, Germany

• Nationality: German, Swiss and Luxembourgish

• Children: 1 daughter (born 2015)

• Languages: German, English (and a little bit of French and Lëtzebuergesch)

• Hobbies: Golf, Running, Travelling, Design and Architecture

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MY FAVOURITE

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• Cities: Zurich, Engadine, New York

• Place: A golf course

• Book: Thomas Mann

• Restaurants: Cantinetta Antinori (Zurich), Trattoria Il Riccio & Brasserie Kirchberg (Luxembourg)

• Music: Lounge Music, 80s funk, Mozart’s Piano Concerts

• Artists: Mark Rothko, Henry Moore