Dominique Zen Ruffinen

Dominique completed his Master’s degree (cum Laude) in macroeconomics at the University of Geneva.

He also successfully completed several further training courses, such as:

• Security Analysis (Graham and Dodd Value Investing) at the New York Institute of Finance
• Financial Analysis
• Portfolio Management and Performance Measurement
• Exchange-Rate and Interest-Rate Economics and Forecasting
• Bond Portfolio and Interest-Rate Risk Management

at the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies (CIMB) and Security Analysis and Portfolio Management Programme (SAPM)

Dominique’s credo:

Increasing shareholder value and maximising profits by improving operational efficiency and optimising the use of available resources by promoting ethical behaviour that ultimately strengthens customer trust and refocuses the innovative power of employees.

Dominique’s key to success:

• Integrity and ethics
• Leadership qualities
• Teamwork
• Recognition
• Communication
• Continuous improvement

From 1983 to 2009 Dominique climbed the career ladder at the Swiss Re Group as:
Junior Underwriter, Swiss Re, Credit and Surety Zurich

• Proportional business; he worked for the French, Dutch and Italian markets and, in addition to marketing tasks, assumed responsibility for the underwriting of the business and designed non-proportional reinsurance programmes (e.g. for the largest French credit insurance company)
• Development of the first credit analysis application used by Swiss Re for its special credit and surety risks

Assistant Portfolio Manager, Swiss Re Asset Management, Zurich

• Assistant portfolio manager for equities and fixed-income securities, responsible for the Southern European portfolios and maximising alpha, long-only funds (Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece)

Portfolio Manager (Equity and Fixed Income, long only), Swiss Re Asset Management, Zurich

• Portfolio manager for equities and fixed-income securities, responsible for the UK and Dutch portfolios and maximising alpha, long-only funds

Long-time member of the Swiss Re – McKinsey “Futures” project, Swiss Re, Zurich, London, New York

• Active member (50%) of the “Futures” project team, which set itself the goal of aligning the organisation of Swiss Re Management with the new group structure
• Member of Senior Management Portfolio Manager (equity long only) Swiss Re, Asset Management, Zurich and London
• Equity Long Only Portfolio Manager, responsible for maximising alpha on a portfolio basis for various mandates (external and internal – UK, NL, Scandinavia); Co-Head of the UK Equity team (London and Zurich)
• Supporting Swiss Re’s Third Party Asset Management in the preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual investment reports for the UK and Dutch portfolios/mandates

Director Head of Sector Allocation and Quant, Swiss Re, Swiss Re Investors, Zurich, Switzerland

• Head of sector allocation for various internal and external European equity portfolio mandates (long only) with the aim of maximising sector alpha while complying with external and internal constraints and regulations
• Management and responsibility for the design, development and implementation of a portfolio construction, execution and performance measurement system used by Swiss Re Investors for the investment process at the stock selection and sector allocation level (DYNAMO system)

Managing Director Head of Risk, Quant & Execution, Swiss Re, Financial Services, Zurich, Switzerland

• Responsible for building and deploying resources (people and systems) for Swiss Re’s Global Equity portfolio (up to USD 8bn net exposure, long-short) in the area of execution and pre- and post-trade processes, in order to ensure adherence to state-of-the-art institutional asset management best practices
• Responsible for the establishment and implementation of risk control procedures and instruments (stress test limit monitoring, liquidity monitoring of the portfolio and individual securities, monitoring of exposure and concentration, monitoring the Greeks), as well as monitoring, organisation and design of daily risk reporting
• Responsible for setting up and managing a new Global Equity Portfolio Quant Group;
• Business Project Manager for the selection and implementation of a new Order Management System (OMS) – LongView (Linedata Services)
• Representative of the Global Equity Portfolio for the internal Middle Office Design and Implementation Project
• Compliance Officer for the global equity portfolio (SOX)

Managing Director Head of Equity and Equity Derivative Structuring and Trading, Swiss Re, Zurich, Switzerland, Financial Markets

• Leading and managing the team for the execution of equities, equity-related derivatives and structured products that contributes to the overall Global Equity Portfolio (GEP) objective of maximising economic value through state-of-the-art execution (trading and trading strategies) in compliance with external and internal requirements and regulations governing asset management activities and processes
• Leading and managing the development of an equity-related derivatives pre- and post-trade process and team capable of achieving optimum execution in terms of cost and speed by ensuring that the best resources (personnel and systems) are optimally utilised, including for the benefit of other stakeholders (operations, IT, risk management, asset allocation and alternative investments)
• Representing the Global Equity Portfolio as a member of the Asset Management Risk Committee, the Operational Risk Committee, the New Product Approval Committee, the Investment Committee and the Executive Team of Asset Management
• Managing cross-departmental dependencies and priorities

Dominique ended his career at Swiss Re in 2009 to pursue other exciting challenges

Voluntary Assignment in Latin America (Focus Colombia) and Secretary of the Board of Directors, Coffee Wood, International AG, Zug, Switzerland

• Developing the financial structure of the Coffee Wood project by founding a Swiss holding company and a Swiss international trading company in Zurich
• Advising the project organiser (private initiative with government support at local and international level) on the social and environmental values of the project
• Coordinating the creation of a modern business plan and financial model;
• Coordinating feasibility studies (supply chain and procurement of coffee trees)
• Ensuring the integration of corporate governance and ethical values into the project

Founding partner of gruposuizo GmbH and holder of various mandates as a member of the Board of Directors, Board Secretary, financial advisor or partner at:

• GS Forestal SAS and GS Bioforestal SAS (partner companies of Gruposuizo in Colombia)
• MCWI AG (a company related to coffee wood production in Colombia)
• Partner at Bold Speciality Coffee Company, Medellín (CO)
• Importing of Latam (mainly Colombian) speciality coffee to selected top coffee houses and Swiss coffee roasters
• Partner at Aquila Asset Management Zurich AG