One firm, one team, one process

Jürg Schäppi is the Chairman and a founding Partner of 2Xideas. He is also a founding partner and principal shareholder of Bellevue Group. He managed Bank am Bellevue, the brokerage and corporate finance division of Bellevue Group, as CEO from 2000 to 2010. Previously, Jürg was employed as an investment banker by S.G. Warburg (now UBS) in Geneva as well as Julius Baer and Citicorp (now Citigroup) in Zurich. Since 1998 he has been active as an investor and independent director on the boards of several hedge funds.

Jürg holds a Master's degree in Economics (lic. oec.) from the University of St. Gallen and a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Michael Stutz joined 2Xideas as Chief Investment Officer and Partner in September 2014. In November 2024, he additionally took over the Chief Executive Officer position. He worked as portfolio manager and later as head of portfolio management at a Switzerland-based multi-family office from 2008 to 2014, managing public and private investments, while also serving on the board of a private portfolio company. Michael started his career in private wealth management as a portfolio manager in 2005. He has been involved in the setup and management of a number of investment fund structures.

Michael holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen. He is also a CFA® and CAIA® charterholder.

Stephan Welti joined 2Xideas as Chief Operating Officer and Partner in September 2020. Previously, he was on the management team of Sygnum Bank, where he led the regulatory process to obtain the first-ever banking licence for a digital asset bank. From 2015 to 2018, he ran the Regulatory, Compliance & Legal FSI division of Deloitte Switzerland, including FINMA mandates. He also founded and led a management consulting firm during that time. From 2009 to 2015, he served on the Executive Committee of a leading Swiss private bank as Chief Risk Officer & General Counsel. Stephan started his career at an international business law firm.

Stephan holds a Master's in Law from the University of St. Gallen and a LL.M. in International Business Law (CAS) from the University of Zurich. He has participated in a number of expert groups, and has lectured on private and business law at the University of St. Gallen.

Philipp Wesner joined 2Xideas as Chief Technology Officer in August 2020 and made Partner in 2022. From 2016 to 2020, Philipp worked at Swiss cloud provider Young Solutions AG, initially as Head of Software Development before being appointed CTO in 2018. He founded a software company in 2000 and from 2012 to 2016 worked as Managing Director at the Frankfurt-based “form Design Magazine”.

Philipp holds a Diplom in Business Mathematics (Dipl. Math Oec.) from KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

Henrik Munk-Nielsen is the Deputy CIO and a founding Partner of 2Xideas. Previously, he worked as Deputy Head of European Equities at British Airways Pensions from 1999 to 2012, managing direct investments in public equities across Europe. Henrik started his career at Prudential Insurance Company of America in London in 1994, helping manage a European small and mid cap fund until 1999.

Henrik holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies jointly from Midtjysk Handelshøjskole in Denmark and Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. He is also a CFA® charterholder.

Raffaella Semedo joined 2Xideas as Sales Director in September 2017, was appointed Head of Sustainability in February 2021, and made Partner in 2022. Previously, Raffaella worked as marketing and investor relations director of an investment company specializing in the alternative energy sector. From 2009 to 2013 she worked in the marketing and sales department at Swiss Finance & Property Group, one of Switzerland’s biggest independent real estate managers. Raffaella started her career in publishing/public relations.

Raffaella is a Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA®) and holds an Associate degree from the Ecôle Hôtelière de Lausanne.

Peter von Moos joined 2Xideas as Business Development Director in September 2018, made Partner in 2023, and became Head of Investor Services in March 2024. Previously, he spent eight years at Credit Suisse's International Trading Solutions desk in Zurich, advising clients on tactical equity positioning with a focus on US equities. He serviced large wealth management accounts ranging from ultra-high net worth individuals to family offices and asset managers. Peter started his career in 2006 as a buy-side equity analyst covering insurance stocks for Credit Suisse Private Bank.

He holds an MA in Accounting and Finance from the University of St. Gallen and is a CFA® charterholder.

Pedro Guerra joined 2Xideas as Investment Specialist in June 2018 and made Partner in 2023. Previously, he was the CFO and a principal shareholder at ResearchPool, a digital platform and workflow solutions provider for asset management customers. From 2001 to 2017, he worked at Banco BPI, initially as corporate finance and M&A analyst and later as institutional sell-side sales in the French market, while simultaneously managing virtual portfolios for institutional asset management customers. He served as the country head in France for over five years, hiring and managing a team of sell-side equity analysts and salespeople.

Pedro holds a Master's in Economics from Porto University and completed the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD. He is a CFA® charterholder and holds the CFA® Institute certificate in ESG Investing.

Krista Rubene joined 2Xideas as Business Development Director in June 2023. Prior to joining 2Xideas, Krista gathered experience in secondary market late-stage venture capital investment sales at Prime Capital Partner SA. She has worked as a derivatives broker for bespoke hedging solutions at Tradition AG, and spent several years in a Switzerland-based multi-family office on the asset management side in multi-asset strategy and AI smart beta fund distribution.

Krista studied in the Bachelor`s program of International Economics at University of Latvia, and completed a CAS Investments & Derivatives at University of Zurich.

Chris Howard joined 2Xideas in July 2023 as a Business Development Director, with a focus on UK wealth manager and family office clients. Chris has over 20 years’ experience in various client service and sales roles.

Prior to joining 2Xideas, Chris worked at RM Funds, an investment firm focused on real assets, as well as with Cohesion Investments, after starting his career at Credit Suisse Asset Management in London.

Jim Ryan joined 2Xideas in August 2023 to lead the US sales effort as the Head of US Investor Services. Jim has over 15 years of experience in business development roles across hedge funds and equities. Prior to joining 2Xideas, Jim was a VP of business development for Abbey Capital, an Ireland-based multi-manager commodity trading advisor firm, focusing on distribution of their alternative investment solutions. 

Jim holds a BA in Economics with a minor in Business Administration from Fordham University. 

Karalyn Hutton joined 2Xideas as Business Development Director in April 2023. Previously, Karalyn worked at Casdin Capital, an investment firm focused on the life science and healthcare fields. Prior to the investment space, Karalyn held several roles in the entertainment industry within Broadway production, theater management, and music industry-based law.

Karalyn holds a BA from Boston College with a minor from the Carroll School of Management. She additionally studied at King’s College London. 

Peter Wick is Head of Technology Research and a founding Partner of 2Xideas. In 2002, Peter established CDL Principal Investors AG, an investment firm serving owner-investors including ultra-high net worth individuals, families, foundations, and investment companies. Previously, Peter worked at BZ Bank, Schweizerischer Bankverein (now UBS) and Darier Hentsch & Cie (now Lombard Odier).

Peter holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master’s degree in Law (licence en droit) from Geneva University. He practiced law in New York City and Geneva until 1986, and is admitted to the New York and Geneva state bars.

Manuel Graça joined 2Xideas as an Equity Analyst in April 2019, was appointed Head of Health Care Research in October 2023, and made Partner in 2024. Prior to that, he developed his equity investing experience in the private markets as a Principal with Atena Equity Partners in Portugal. Manuel’s career has spanned a number of strategy and finance roles, having also worked with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Groupon Brazil, and Deloitte Corporate Finance.

Manuel holds an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School and a BSc in Business Administration from Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Rajvir Visen-Singh joined 2Xideas as an Equity Analyst in August 2019, was appointed Head of Financials Research in July 2022, and made Partner in 2024. Since completing an internship in the summer of 2018 at 2Xideas and subsequent time as an Analyst, Rajvir has been responsible for a broad array of investments in the financials sector, ranging from financial technology and data services to insurance.

Rajvir holds an MA (Hons) in Management from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Ricco Friedrich joined 2Xideas as an Equity Analyst in March 2021, was appointed Head of Industrials Research in 2022, and made Partner in 2023. Previously, he was a founding Partner, director, and portfolio manager at Denker Capital in South Africa. Prior to founding Denker Capital, Ricco successfully started and managed various equity strategies for Sanlam Investment Management for both retail and institutional clients.

Ricco holds a Bachelor’s (Hons) in Business Science (Finance) from the University of Cape Town. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and is a CFA® charterholder.

Benjamin Silverman joined 2Xideas as an Equity Analyst in June 2023. Previously, he was founder and portfolio manager at North10 Capital, where he managed family office assets through separate accounts across a multi-asset class investment strategy. Prior to that, Benjamin held several senior investment roles in New York City, covering Basic Materials and Industrial equities at divisions within Point72 Asset Management, Millennium Management, and Scopus Asset Management. Benjamin started his investment career as a sell-side equity research associate covering the airline industry in 2005.

Benjamin holds a BS in Organizational Communication from Cornell University.

Balint Binkert joined 2Xideas as Data Scientist and Quantitative Researcher in March 2022, and was appointed Head of Quantitative Research in December 2023. During his academic career he gained expertise in machine learning, statistics, data analysis, stochastic finance, and computational methods for quantitative finance.

Balint holds a Master's in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Cambridge and is currently also working to complete his PhD in Mathematical Finance at ETH Zurich.

Tamás Szőke joined 2XIdeas in September 2023 as a Quantitative Analyst. Previously, he worked in the Hungarian office of a US-based hedge fund as a quantitative developer, in the areas of both software engineering and research.

Tamás holds a Master’s in Pure Mathematics from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary.

Vincent Lehmann joined 2Xideas as an ESG Analyst in March 2023. He previously worked at RepRisk, a leading ESG data science company. Before that he gained work experience at a Swiss real estate development firm supporting the acquisitions team. Back in 2020, Vincent completed a six-month internship as an equity analyst at 2Xideas.

Vincent holds an MSc in Sustainability Entrepreneurship & Innovation from ESCP Business School and a BSc in Business Administration, specializing in Finance, from Northeastern University. He also holds the CFA® Institute Certificate in ESG Investing.

Anastasios Tafakis joined 2Xideas as Head of Trading in August 2019 and made Partner in 2024. From 2014 to 2019, he managed a long/short equity strategy for a Switzerland-based family office. Anastasios started his financial career in the wealth management division of Merrill Lynch in London and later worked as an investment advisor at Valartis Bank before becoming a portfolio manager at a Switzerland-based multi-family office.

Anastasios holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Bath, UK,and a BA (Hons) in Business Economics & Finance from London Metropolitan University. He is also a CFA® charterholder.

Kristian Arve joined 2Xideas as a Data Scientist in April 2018, became Co-Head of Development in January 2023, and transitioned to Head of AI and Risk Manager in December 2024. He was made Partner in 2024. He earlier worked as a project manager at a consulting company during his studies, and also had prior experience as an independent quantitative futures trader.

Kristian holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from the University of Zurich.

Will Hardy joined 2Xideas as a Software Engineer in August 2020 and became Co-Head of Development in January 2023. He previously spent 15 years building, scaling, and securing numerous large software systems as an independent consultant in Europe and Australia.

Will holds Bachelor’s degrees in Software Engineering (Hons) and Laws from the University of Melbourne.

Adam Crowther joined 2Xideas as Co-Head of Development in September 2023. Adam had previously been an independent consultant since 2005, working as software engineer, tech-lead and solution architect in the banking and finance industries for clients such as Avaloq, Bank Vontobel and Credit Suisse. He specializes in large-scale portfolio and order management systems.

Adam holds a Diploma in Behavioural Biology from ETH Zürich (Dipl. Natw. ETH).

Ivor Majnarić joined 2Xideas in November 2023 as a Quantitative Developer. Before joining 2xideas, Ivor worked as a software engineer in the blockchain area for the Verum Capital, and for UBS in the automation team, implementing software solutions for both. After completing his studies, Ivor joined CAEmate, where he worked as an engineering software developer on the solution for structural analysis. 

Ivor has a Master’s in Computational Engineering from the University of Rijeka (Croatia). As the continuation of his studies, he is currently pursuing a PhD in computational engineering at the University of Rijeka.

Max Brauer joined 2Xideas as a Software Engineer in June 2021. Previously, he worked in a startup creating immersive AI and AR applications to develop brand experiences for its customers. Before that, Max worked as a Software Developer in the film industry, building complex applications for a range of companies.

Max holds a BSc in Computer Science from the BA Leipzig University of Cooperative Education.

Tom Bärwinkel joined 2Xideas as a Software Engineer in January 2022. He previously worked on the user experience and notification systems in IT monitoring software and in the automotive industry.

Tom holds a Master's in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry from the Technical University of Munich.

Sven Kircher joined 2xideas as a Software Engineer in June 2023. Sven started his career as a consultant in financial risk management. Since 2007, he worked in high frequency trading (HFT) for companies in Switzerland and Singapore. He gained broad experience ranging from IT-related tasks, leading the development of an HFT trading system, data analysis, prediction models, to order management and production monitoring. 

Sven holds a PhD in Physics from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Oxford. 

Tarek Al-Selwi joined 2Xideas as a Data Engineer in February 2021 and became Head of Data Engineering in March 2024. Previously, he worked as an IT Consultant for private banks in the UK, Luxembourg, and Germany, implementing banking systems and creating data pipelines, and for UBS on its Data Warehouse and Automation team in Switzerland.

Tarek holds a Master's degree in Economics and Financial Markets from the University of Wroclaw, Poland.

Emilia Zakrawacz joined 2Xideas as a Data Engineer in July 2023. Her experience focuses on topics such as modeling, quality assurance, and building ETL pipelines. Previously she worked as an analyst programmer for wealth management firms, private banks, and then as a data engineer for UBS and Elipslife. 

Emilia holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Technology in Wroclaw, Poland.

Vladimir Potter joined 2Xideas as a Software Developer in April 2022. He previously spent more than 10 years designing and building mid-to-large software systems for companies throughout Europe, the US, and Australia.

Vladimir holds a Master’s in Informatics and Computer Engineering from Novosibirsk State University in Russia.

Dr. Fabian Schmid is the Head of the Regulatory & Compliance Financial Services division of Grant Thornton AG, which acts as 2Xideas’ outsourced Company Risk & Compliance Office. Fabian leads the mandate and has over 15 years of professional experience in financial markets law. Together with his team, he supports the auditing of all regulatory matters and acts as the consulting expert in the Regulatory & Compliance Financial Services division, particularly on the topics of the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA), Financial Services Act (FinSA), CISA, AMLA and corporate governance. Compliance services for smaller and medium-sized banks and asset managers are a particular focus. In addition to setting up dedicated outsourcing services in the areas of ICS, compliance, and risk management for asset managers, he has led various FINMA investigative mandates and special audit mandates in the banking sector in the past.

Fabian holds a PhD in law (Dr. iur.) in the field of financial markets/asset management law from the University of Bern.

Sascha Hirling joined 2Xideas as Head of Finance in September 2023. Previously, he was an audit manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, where he was responsible for both the regulatory and financial audit of a diverse portfolio of asset & wealth managers. Before transitioning to the financial services sector in 2016, Sascha worked as an auditor within the industrial services sector for PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH, Germany, where he focused on the audit of large industrial conglomerates. 

Sascha is a Swiss Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Taxation and Business Law, with a specialization in Accounting and Controlling from Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW).

Ridon Gashi joined 2Xideas as Financial Controller in January 2024. Previously, he worked in auditing at PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, where he was responsible for auditing various asset management companies.

Ridon holds a Master of Science in Economics with a specialization in Finance, Controlling, and Banking from the University of Basel.

Adrian Kunz joined 2Xideas as an RFP Manager in June 2021, and was appointed Head of Fund Operations in September 2022. Previously, he worked on Man Group’s Sales Management team as Head of Market Intelligence. Adrian started his career as a fund analyst at a Zurich-based wealth manager.

Adrian holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Zurich.

Elina Stutz joined 2Xideas as a Fund Operations Manager in November 2019. Previously, she worked on the client reporting team at Vontobel Asset Management, and in operations at Sp-Fund Management Company.

Elina holds a Master’s in Business Administration specialized in Future Studies and Customer-Oriented Services from Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

Joachim Riedlechner joined as the Head of 2Xideas Europa AG in Vaduz, Liechtenstein in July 2022. Prior to that, he was managing director of a FMA licensed multi-family office in Liechtenstein. Previous experience includes a broad range of roles throughout investment management, including trading, portfolio management, and middle office with various banks and asset managers in Liechtenstein.

Joachim holds a BA in Business Administration and a diploma as a Certified International Investment Analyst CIIA®.

Marco Frei has been 2Xideas’ Vice-Chairman since March 2016. He is also an independent pension fund advisor and trustee. From 2005 to 2011, Marco was head of group pension asset management at Roche Group in Basel. He joined Roche in 1987 in the treasury department, where he worked as an asset and financial risk manager before being appointed head of group risk management. Marco started his career at Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS) as a portfolio manager and advisor to private and institutional clients.

Marco holds a Swiss banking diploma from the Handelsschule KV in Basel, and attended regular management seminars at Roche Group. In 2011, he spent three months at the London School of Economics to study the Great Depression of 1929–37.

Marianne Fassbind has served on the 2Xideas Board since December 2021. She is also Partner of Dynamics Group, a strategic communication firm. Marianne’s areas of expertise are strategic communications for companies and pension plans, reputation and crisis management, investor relationships, handling electronic and print media, and public affairs especially for pension funds and capital markets. She has reported and commented on the Swiss economy and foreign business affairs for over 25 years. As a member of investment committees and as a board member of pension funds, the pensions market also belongs to her core competencies. Thanks to her former position as finance director of the city of Rapperswil, Switzerland, she is also familiar with the nature of Swiss politics and government.

Marianne Fassbind holds a Master’s in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Zurich (lic. oec.publ.).

Martin Bisang is a founding shareholder in 2Xideas. Previously, he founded Bellevue Group with five partners. He was instrumental in setting up and launching the investment company BB Biotech, which was listed on the Swiss stock exchange in 1993. He ran Bellevue Group as CEO until 2012. Martin started his career at BZ Group as a pharmaceuticals analyst.

Martin holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master's in Economics from the University of Basel.