Lombard Odier’s Michael Strobaek compares being the global chief investment officer of a private bank to being conductor of an orchestra. “I don’t play all the instruments – but I can certainly hear when they’re played wrong,” he tells Euromoney. “I know when something sounds right or wrong. And I have a very fine feel for how you communicate with clients.”
Strobaek is intense yet charming. If an advanced form of AI created a physical manifestation of itself, seasoned with just enough mortal wryness and humility, the global CIO of Swiss private bank Lombard Odier would surely be the net outcome.
Which sounds about right. A chief investment officer is different things to different people. They work hard – Strobaek, who joined in 2023 after a decade as Credit Suisse’s global CIO, starts his day at 5am. “The first thing I do is check the headlines, the markets and the futures,” he says.
The