David M. Solo will step down from his current role as group chief executive officer and from the group management board of GAM Holding effective September 8 2014. The board of directors has named Alexander S. Friedman as his successor.
Solo joined the Group via GAM as CEO in 2004 and then became CEO of the enlarged asset management division of Julius Baer in 2006. Following the separation from Julius Baer, he continued as CEO of the operating entities GAM and Swiss & Global Asset Management, and finally - after moving from a pure financial holding model to an integrated structure - he assumed the role as group CEO of GAM Holding AG in April 2013.
Solo will assist Friedman and the board of directors over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition before pursuing new challenges, a company statement said. The leadership changes are subject to the customary approvals by the Swiss financial market supervisory authority FINMA.
Prior to joining GAM, Friedman served as the global chief investment officer of UBS Wealth Management and Wealth Management Americas, as chairman of the UBS global investment committee and as a group managing director. In these capacities, he oversaw the investment policy and strategy for about US$2 trillion in assets.
Before joining UBS, he was the chief financial officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest foundation, and a member of the foundation's management committee. Friedman was also a senior advisor to Lazard, the financial advisory and asset management firm, a member of the supervisory board of Actis, the emerging-market private equity firm, and managed Asymmetry, a private investment firm.
Friedman was a White House fellow in the Clinton administration and an assistant to the US Secretary of Defense. He is a board member of several non-profit organizations, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a regular contributor to Bloomberg, CNBC, the Financial Times, and other media.
Friedman holds a JD from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, an MBA from Columbia University Business School and a BA from Princeton University.