A former Credit Suisse executive will oversee investment firms for one of Europe’s oldest auto dynasties, joining a rising number of women in top roles at money managers for the ultrarich.
Lucia Waldner, the former head of the Swiss bank’s internal research unit, was named CEO and managing director of the billionaire Opel family’s Hansa Aktiengesellschaft and GVO Asset Management, according to a statement Monday.
Waldner is scheduled to start in June and will be in charge of managing the companies’ operations and assets, with a focus on driving growth, GVO Asset Management said in the statement. She replaces longtime executive Michael Kuessner, who’ll continue as a consultant and will also join Hansa’s board.
Waldner declined to comment.
The family traces its fortune to 1862, when Adam Opel opened a bicycle and sewing-machine manufacturer in Germany that began making cars about four decades later. They sold the company about a century ago to General Motors Corp. — which continued to own the Opel brand until 2017, when it was bought by the maker of Peugeot, now part of Stellantis NV.
Adam Opel’s great-grandson, Georg, 57, helps oversee both Hansa and GVO Asset Management, registry filings show. He’s a major shareholder in Athris AG, a Swiss investment firm with holdings of more than 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.1 billion) in equities, real estate and hedge funds, according to latest filings.
Waldner spent almost a decade at Credit Suisse — including a stint as chief of staff to former Chairman Urs Rohner — before leaving in 2018 to take on leadership roles at the family office for Swiss entrepreneur Claudio Cisullo, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She’s among a group of women taking on senior roles in billionaires’ family offices. Former Foresite Capital executive Alisa Mall was hired in 2022 to oversee Michael Dell’s assets, while Suzi Kwon Cohen is chief investment officer of Mousse Partners, the multibillion-dollar investment firm for the dynasty behind Chanel. Sergey Brin’s family office recently hired Rachel Teo, the former head of sustainability for Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, to manage green investments.