About us

The first fully dedicated Swiss impact investment manager

Asteria IM is the a fully dedicated impact investment management firm based in Switzerland. With our state-of-the-art technology, deep research capabilities and impact investment experts, we offer a unique range of impact investment strategies that can truly make a difference to the world we live in.

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Our purpose

Our purpose is to help our clients transition their portfolios to align with risk, return and impact outcomes.

The demand for impact investments is growing exponentially every year, with more investors looking to use their financial assets to tackle some of the biggest challenges our planet is facing.

Even though the impact investment industry is still in its infancy, it is rapidly growing in prominence. Investors understand that impact investing not only enables them to meet their financial objectives but can also help to achieve environmental and social objectives.

Currently, around 50% of assets worldwide are managed taking into account ESG factors, but only about 1% are invested in strategies with the intention of real and positive impact. We have made it our mission to respond to the growing need for sustainability by focusing on investments that drive measurable positive impact and have attractive return potential.

Asteria IM brings together the fragmented impact investment market to offer investors a highly focused and agile investment business with cross asset class capabilities.

In addition, we take pride in making impact investment accessible to a wide client base, actively building bridges between private and public capital for the benefit of investors and society alike.

Our Offer
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Impact

Theory of change

At Asteria IM, we want to support the status of our society. We are convinced that to tackle the most prominent challenges, every component of our economic system must become a positive contribution and at a large scale.

Identifying products and services providing demonstrable and measurable contributions to the global sustainability agenda can be evaluated through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). With estimation of over USD 2.5 Trillion of private capital needed to tackle the SDG, listed assets intentionally redirected to the right solutions can obviously help deliver progress. Undeniably, secondary markets are necessary to support innovation and value creation from primary markets.

We are convinced that directing that capital effectively can bring the greatest improvement and enables to lower the cost of capital over the long run. Not only does it provide scale, but it also gives access to impactful investment solutions to more investors.

Impact investing goes beyond ESG investing as the investment must have theintentionalityto generating positive impact, and thus influencing all steps of the investment process. This is the reason why transparency is crucial to overcome the challenge of “impact washing” the sustainable investing industry is facing.

We are committed to share our decision-making process at each step:

  1. Strategy definition: our strategies select companies or projects that offer game changing products or technologies as part of the solution to some of the largest issues society is facing
  2. Investment selection: we identify companies and projects generating benefits to the real economy through their products and services and provide exciting investment opportunities. Additionally, we avoid investing in companies that produce goods and services harming the environment or the society.
  3. Performance measurement: we measure how much impact the products and services from invested companies delivered in the real world
  4. Engagement: we joined collective actions to put pressure on companies whose climate strategy is not ambitious enough.

At Asteria IM, we use the lever of investment to act positively and on scale.

Team

Board of directors

Ruth Metzler-Arnold

Ruth Metzler-Arnold

Chairwoman

Ruth Metzler-Arnold

Chairwoman

Ruth Metzler-Arnold served as the Minister of Justice and Police in the Swiss Federal Council (1999-2003) and was Vice-President of the Swiss Government in 2003. She holds various Board chairs and seats in Swiss companies and Foundations. I.e. Chairwoman of Switzerland Global Enterprise, Deputy Chairwoman of AXA Switzerland and member of the Board of Swiss Medical Network. She was appointed member of the Board of REYL & Cie Ltd’s in 2016. Her former professional assignments as a lawyer and chartered accountant with international firms such as PWC and Novartis provide her with a broad private sector management and industrial experience complementing her experiences in the public sector and world of SMEs. Former mandates include Board Member and Audit Committee Chair of Bühler AG, Member of the Board of Governors of University St. Gall as well as Minister of Finance, Canton Appenzell IRh.

Michel Broch

Michel Broch

Deputy Chair

Michel Broch

Deputy Chair

Michel Broch began his career at the Federal Court of Insurance and the Legal Department of the Federal Banking Committee (now FINMA). He joined Ernst & Young as a banking and financial Advisor in 1990, later becoming a partner then a Board member. After being appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee of Banque Safdié SA in Geneva in 2002, he created his own consultancy specialising in services to banks and financial institutions in 2005. He was appointed respectively Vice-Chairman and Chairman of REYL & Cie Ltd’s Board of Directors and Audit and Risk Committee in 2009.

Pasha Bakhtiar

Member, Delegate of the BoD

Pasha Bakhtiar

Member, Delegate of the BoD

Pasha Bakhtiar began his career in 1998 with Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch in Geneva before moving to Dubai in 2004 to participate in the launch of LODH’s operations in the UAE. In 2010, he was one of the early movers in the impact investing space by founding Willow Impact Investors, a private equity fund focusing on East Africa. After a successful exit, Pasha Bakhtiar took on the role of Chief Executive Officer of ES Bankers Dubai Ltd. He joined REYL & Cie in 2015 as co-founder and CEO of REYL Finance (MEA) Ltd in Dubai to develop the Group’s activities prior to moving back to Geneva and becoming a Partner in 2018.

Jan Frogg

Jan Frogg

Member

Jan Frogg

Member

Jan Frogg has over 30 years of experience in hedge funds, asset management and financial services. As Head of Union Bancaire Privée’s Alternative Investments (one of the largest hedge fund investors) from 2004 to 2010 he ran an international team spread across New York, Geneva, London and Tokyo offices. He previously held various senior roles in Geneva, Paris and London, notably with Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Jan Frogg currently holds several board memberships in the asset management and hedge fund industry and is also the president and co-founder of TGIT Music SA Since 2012 (music production, publishing and touring).

Sunnie J. Groenveld

Sunnie J. Groenveld

Member

Sunnie J. Groenveld

Member

Sunnie J. Groeneveld is the Managing Partner of the digital transformation consultancy Inspire 925, the Associate Dean of Studies of the Executive MBA Digital Leadership at the HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Zurich and a board member of several medium-sized companies in Switzerland in the media, communications, health insurance and engineering sector. Previously, she worked as the first Managing Director of digitalswitzerland, Switzerland’s largest cross-industry initiative on digital transformation. Moreover, she is the author of the book “Inspired at Work” (Versus Publishing), was named as one of the “Top 100 Women in Business”, appeared in the list “Top 50 Who is Who in Digital Switzerland” by Handelszeitung as well as in the “30 under 30” list of Forbes magazine. Sunnie graduated in Economics from Yale University and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the International University in Geneva for her accomplishments in building sustainable business models and transformation projects in Switzerland.

Team

We have combined a team of investment professionals with proven track record from the asset management and the impact investing industry. We rely on collective intelligence where knowledge sharing and cross-expertise are the foundation of our collaboration.

Guido Bolliger

Guido Bolliger

CEO & Chief Investment Officer

Guido Bolliger

CEO & Chief Investment Officer

Guido has more than 25 years of experience in managing and developing systematic investment strategies. He is joining from SYZ AM, where he held multiple roles as Chief Investment Architect and Head of Quantitative Strategies. Prior to that, Guido served as CEO of the Olympia Capital Alternative Investment Fund. Guido is the Chief Investment Officer of Asteria Obviam, managing the Asteria Funds – Planet Impact Global Equities and Asteria Funds – People Impact Global Equities and is one of the members of the Executive Committee.

Natacha Guerdat

Natacha Guerdat

Head of Research

Natacha Guerdat

Head of Research

Natacha is a founding partner of Asteria IM and member of the Executive Committee. She also chairs Asteria IM’s impact committee. With more than 20 years of experience in sustainable and impact investing, Natacha is considered as a pioneer of this field. She started her career at Lombard-Odier in 2001 as financial and ESG analyst before becoming thematic and sustainability portfolio manager. In this position, she was also instrumental in developing the bank’s sustainable investment offering. She joined Asteria in 2019 from Conser Invest in Geneva, a specialized consultant and asset manager entirely dedicated to sustainable finance and responsible investment, where she acted as founding partner and head of asset management. Natacha is a founding member of Sustainable Finance Geneva, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable finance in Switzerland. She holds a master’s degree in international Relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute. Natacha is one of the members of the Executive Committee of Asteria Obviam.

Dajana Turijlija

Dajana Turujlija

Head of Legal & Compliance

Dajana Turujlija

Head of Legal & Compliance

Dajana holds a Master’s degree in Business Law from the University of Paris II Assas, as well as a degree from the ESSEC Business School, and was a member of the Paris Bar. She is an experienced Lawyer with more than 10 years of experience in finance and asset management. Her background combines both legal and financial experience. She worked as a Capital Markets lawyer for Gide Loyrette Nouel – Paris, where she advised issuers (banks, listed corporates, public institutions), arrangers and dealers in relation with debt securities and structured finance. In 2015, she joined UCAP (Union Capital Group/ UCAP Wealth Management) in Geneva as Head of Legal and Compliance and was in charge of legal, compliance and operational aspects relating to investment funds as well as other financial products or private equity transactions. Dajana is one of the members of the Executive Committee of Asteria Obviam.

Dries Cornilly, CAIA

Dries Cornilly, CAIA

Insvestment Manager

Dries Cornilly, CAIA

Insvestment Manager

Dries has 5 years of experience in quant-driven investing. He is currently portfolio manager for the listed equity products where he manages the investment strategies from a return, risk and impact perspective. Dries leads the end-to-end data and analytics workflow for liquid assets. Prior to joining Asteria in 2020, he was a Quantitative Analyst at SYZ Asset Management, where the team managed a global long-short equity fund and a multi-asset fund with a protection overlay. He started his professional career at ING Belgium and a research collaboration with Degroof Petercam Asset Management. Dries holds a PhD in Mathematics from KU Leuven and a PhD in Business Economics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He has published in leading journals such as Journal of Econometrics and Journal of Financial Econometrics. Since December 2020 he is a CAIA Charter holder.

Luca Manera, CFA

Luca Manera, CFA

Investment Manager

Luca Manera, CFA

Investment Manager

Luca joined Asteria Investment Managers in 2020 to help support and launch the fixed income capabilities of the firm and is currently managing the Asteria Funds – Climate Bonds. Prior to joining Asteria Investment Managers, he was based in London as investment analyst in the fixed income team of Mirabaud Asset Management, helping to manage high conviction institutional fixed income strategies. The strategies ranged from short-term credit to global high-yield and he has built an extensive sector and geographic coverage in credit investing. Luca started his career in investment banking at Lazard in Milan. Luca holds a Bachelor degree from Bocconi University, a Masters in Finance and is a CFA.

Wenceslas Kerrand

Wenceslas Kerrand

Chief Operating Officer

Wenceslas Kerrand

Chief Operating Officer

Wenceslas holds a Master’s degree in Management & Information Systems from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom as well as an Advanced Master’s degree in Strategy and Management of International Business from ESSEC Business School in Paris. He began his career at Rothschild & Co Bank, before joining Alpha FMC as consultant in management and organization specialized in the financial sector. In this role, he participated in and led transformation projects for Wealth and Asset managers.

Silvia Padula

Silvia Padula

Head of Marketing

Silvia Padula

Head of Marketing

Silvia holds a Master’s degree in Mass Media Communication and Advertisement Studies, a Post-Master’s degree in Business Management from SciencesPo de Paris as well as a Diploma in Luxury Marketing from CREA Genève. She has 15 years of international work experience in Marketing and her expertise includes, among others, event management, coordination of marketing campaigns, maintaining and developing client relationships, preparation and monitoring of budgets, development of marketing strategies. She gained her professional experience while working for Air Liquide, Groupama, Renaissance Asset Managers, Unigestion and before joining Asteria, for Aston Martin.

Céline Dumont

Céline Dumont

Financial Accountant

Céline Dumont

Financial Accountant

Céline holds a BSc in International Hospitality Management from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne with a major in finance. Céline started her career at Ernst & Young SA’s Audit department. Before joining Asteria, she was employed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development where she held two different positions. She started as Finance Associate, overseeing the day-to-day accounting, recurrent closings, financial monitoring and reporting to cost centers, budget and forecasting as well as supporting in grants expenditure management. She was then promoted to Finance and Payroll Manager, reporting directly to the CFO.

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