Olivier Schneider
Partner

• BSc. in Economics (major in finance), University of Geneva

Nationality
Swiss, French

Languages
French, English

In my professional life, I’ve always sought out stimulating environments that take me beyond my comfort zone. I need a job that’s exciting, and I also need to be constantly challenged. It’s probably this love of challenges that led me to begin my career with an audit company. It turned out to be a great formative experience. As I was focusing on auditing private bankers, I learned a lot about accounting and private banking – but I also discovered the power of corporate culture in these organisations, many of which have been around for a very long time. I became convinced that corporate culture, more than anything else, is the key to long-term business success.

After a couple of years I felt I needed a new challenge in an international environment. And where better than New York? I spent a few years in the Big Apple, eventually becoming responsible for the Management Information department of a bank. Our role was to provide the management with all the information and tools they needed to run the business. I had a fantastic time – both personally and professionally, and I learned that speed and energy are key to running a business. But you also need to innovate constantly.

It was this quest to try new things that brought me back to Switzerland. I moved to Geneva, where I set up the Management Consulting practice of Coopers & Lybrand. The latter merged with Price Waterhouse to form PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the largest consulting firm in the world. I took on responsibility for all sorts of projects, focusing mainly on wealth management – before taking charge of the PwC private banking service for Switzerland.

In 2003 the consulting arm of PwC was acquired by IBM, and I spent two years working for ‘Big Blue’, with my job evolving more and more towards IT. And then along came Orbium. I brought a lot of the knowledge, insight and experience I’d gained with the biggest companies in the industry, and put it to work in a smaller, leaner consultancy.

The adrenaline-fuelled life of a consultant is something I don’t think you can find in any other business field. And the opportunity to start and grow a business from scratch means the job I have right now is, for me, unbeatable.