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Credit Suisse

Financial ServicesFounded 1856
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Leadership History

Credit Suisse: CEO History

4 leaders · 1856 to present

Who is the CEO of Credit Suisse?

Ulrich Körner is the CEO of Credit Suisse. The first chief executive was Brady Dougan, from 2007.

Current CEO
Ulrich Körner
First CEO
Brady Dougan (2007)
Leaders documented
4
Founded
1856
NameRoleFromToYears in role
Ulrich KörnerChief Executive Officer (2022-2024)202220242
Tidjane ThiamChief Executive Officer (2015-2020)201520205
Brady DouganChief Executive Officer200720158
Alfred EscherFounder & Board Chairman1856188226

Company Overview

For more than 160 years Credit Suisse and UBS were the two pillars of Swiss banking. Credit Suisse, based at Paradeplatz in Zurich, combined a global wealth manager, a large Swiss retail and corporate bank and a Wall Street-scale investment bank. A run of scandals and risk failures, capped by the 2021 Archegos and Greensill losses, drained client confidence, and in March 2023 the Swiss government had UBS take it over to avoid a disorderly failure. The company is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

Ulrich Körner

Chief Executive Officer (2022-2024)

2022 – 2024

2 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Became CEO in August 2022 after the Archegos and Greensill failures under Thomas Gottstein. His October 2022 plan aimed to cut 9,000 jobs, sell most of the securitized products group to Apollo, spin out CS First Boston, and raise about $4.8 billion (CHF 4 billion) of capital, with Saudi National Bank as anchor investor. When outflows spiked in March 2023, he oversaw the sale to UBS.

Legacy

Steered the bank through its final tumultuous months and successfully executed the operational integration of Credit Suisse AG into UBS AG before the legal entity's dissolution in May 2024.

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Tidjane Thiam

Chief Executive Officer (2015-2020)

2015 – 2020

5 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Hired from British insurer Prudential in 2015, Thiam shrank the investment bank's fixed-income trading, raised about $12 billion (CHF 10 billion) of new equity, and pushed wealth management in Asia-Pacific. He resigned in February 2020 after the bank was found to have had former wealth head Iqbal Khan followed by private investigators.

Legacy

Returned the bank to profit, with pre-tax income of about $5.64 billion (CHF 4.7 billion) in 2019, and reduced risk-weighted assets, although the spying affair damaged its reputation.

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Brady Dougan

Chief Executive Officer

2007 – 2015

8 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Dougan became chief executive of Credit Suisse in 2007 and led the bank through the financial crisis and a period of regulatory pressure, including a 2014 US tax-evasion settlement.

Legacy

He left in 2015 and Tidjane Thiam succeeded him.

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Alfred Escher

Founder & Board Chairman

1856 – 1882

26 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Escher founded Schweizerische Kreditanstalt in Zurich in July 1856 because Swiss cantonal banks were too small to fund a national railway network without foreign lenders. Under his leadership the bank financed Swiss railways, he backed the founding of Rentenanstalt (now Swiss Life) in 1857, and he led the Gotthard Railway project.

Legacy

Built the domestic capital market that helped industrialize Switzerland and made Paradeplatz in Zurich a banking center.

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Credit Suisse CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who was Ulrich Körner and what was his role as the final CEO of Credit Suisse?

Ulrich Körner was CEO of Credit Suisse from August 1, 2022. He launched the October 2022 restructuring plan, took the bank through the UBS takeover, and remained CEO of Credit Suisse AG until it merged into UBS AG on May 31, 2024.

Who was Thomas Gottstein and what scandals defined his tenure as CEO from 2020 to 2022?

Thomas Gottstein, a longtime Swiss investment banker, served as CEO from February 2020 to July 2022. His tenure was devastated by the catastrophic Archegos ($5.5B loss) and Greensill ($10B fund freeze) crises in March 2021, leading to his resignation amidst heavy losses.

Who was Tidjane Thiam and what was his impact as CEO from 2015 to 2020?

Tidjane Thiam, a Franco-Ivorian executive and former CEO of Prudential plc, led Credit Suisse from 2015 to 2020. Thiam successfully restructured the bank, raised 10 billion CHF in capital, pivoted focus toward wealth management, and achieved three consecutive years of profitability before resigning due to a corporate spying scandal.

What was the 2019 Credit Suisse corporate spying scandal involving Iqbal Khan?

In 2019, after star wealth management head Iqbal Khan defected from Credit Suisse to UBS, Credit Suisse Chief Operating Officer Pierre-Olivier Bouée hired private detectives to shadow Khan through Zurich. The surveillance was discovered, triggering public outrage, a criminal investigation, and the resignation of then-CEO Tidjane Thiam.

Who was Brady Dougan and what characterized his tenure as CEO from 2007 to 2015?

Brady Dougan, an American investment banker from First Boston, served as CEO for eight years. Dougan navigated Credit Suisse through the 2008 global financial crisis without a direct Swiss government bailout, but expanded high-risk investment banking and oversaw the $2.6 billion US tax evasion settlement in 2014.

Who was Axel Lehmann and what was his role as the final Chairman of the Board?

Axel Lehmann served as Chairman of the Board of Credit Suisse from January 2022 until the UBS merger. Lehmann took over after former Lloyds CEO António Horta-Osório resigned for breaching COVID-19 quarantine rules, leading the bank through its final crisis alongside then-CEO Ulrich Körner.

Who was Rainer E. Gut and how did he shape modern Credit Suisse in the 1980s and 1990s?

Rainer E. Gut became CEO in 1977 and chairman in 1983, a role he held until 2000. He drove the push into Wall Street through First Boston and the 1990s deals for Schweizerische Volksbank and Winterthur.

What governance lessons emerged from the failure of Credit Suisse's Board of Directors?

Independent parliamentary and regulatory reports concluded that Credit Suisse's Board suffered from lack of banking expertise, ineffective oversight of complex investment bank derivatives, failure to enforce risk management accountability, and a misaligned compensation culture.

Who was the last CEO of Credit Suisse?

Ulrich Körner was the final CEO. He was brought in to execute a massive, desperate restructuring plan, but failed to stop wealthy clients from pulling over $100 billion out of the bank in late 2022 and early 2023.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.