How important to SBC Warburg is the bank’s chief operating officer, the young and mysterious David Solo? Some insiders at the bank say it is the shy Solo who, at 32, is masterminding SBC Warburg’s strategy to become the world’s best investment bank.
“David Solo is the chief strategist behind SBC Warburg. [Marcel] Ospel [group CEO] wouldn’t be in his position if it weren’t for Solo. Separately they were no good, but together they complement one another,” says a former SBC Warburg executive. He goes on to say that “it isn’t just because Solo is brilliant that Ospel needs him but that Solo thinks and plans far into the future. He has plans for the bank in 10 years’ time”.
Whether Solo is calling the shots is a matter of debate, but no one disputes that his rise has been meteoric and that his role in the bank is crucial. Ospel has said on several occasions that Solo is a key member of the team but that his age and his background – more technology-oriented than client-based – have attracted unusual attention.
Solo’s appointment at his age is not so surprising remembering Ospel’s tendency to promote bright young things: Andy Siciliano, 36 years old, in New York and Marcus Granziol, just over 40, running global equities are two examples. It’s also no surprise that Solo fits Ospel well. Solo comes from O’Connor Partnerships, the Chicago-based, high-tech derivatives firm that SBC later bought. The firm embodied the American style and technology that Ospel felt was the only way forward for the Swiss bank.
Wrong culture
When SBC Warburg first began courting O’Connor, the bank told one of the partners there: “To be a player in the year 2000, to be a big investment player, we (SBC) have the wrong culture. O’Connor’s culture is closer to what we want.” Recalling that episode, O’Connor partner David Weinberger adds: “We [O’Connor] came to believe that the bank was serious about needing our culture. The enormous credit they get for adopting that culture goes to Marcel Ospel.”
Part of that culture includes a meritocracy that allows young people like Solo to rise quickly. Solo was exceptional in having a masters degree. “By and large the partners came in as kids out of school,” says Weinberger. But Solo matched his streetwise colleagues with his ability to think fast, on his feet. “Someone who ends up part of the solution rather than a part of the problem,” Weinberger says.
An American from the east coast, Solo comes from a science background. His father is a pharmacologist (not the Nobel prize winner by the name of Solo that he is often confused with). Solo received his bachelors and masters degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before joining O’Connor. MIT had long been a recruiting ground for O’Connor people. “There’s a big MIT mafia here,” says Weinberger. “MIT is one of the best universities for turning out smart people who will roll their sleeves up.”
Solo cut his teeth on FX options trading and saw things he was able to improve. He distinguished himself early by developing proprietary risk technology. “So Solo is sitting on the interest rate desk, grabs the ball and gets a team together, a team of hard-to-work-with people – ie, mixing techies and traders – and builds a state-of-the-art interest-rate trading system. It [the system] is still at the heart of things,” recalls Weinberger. Solo was made a partner four years after joining the company.
Ospel and Solo met during the sales negotiations with O’Connor and they later shared an office in Zurich where “they came to depend on each other”, says a former SBC executive. “Ospel could not have reached the position he did without Solo behind him and Solo at his age could not have made chief operating officer without Ospel pushing him through.”
Since 1996, after integrating the bank’s worldwide trading strategy for rates, Solo was appointed COO as well as a member of the executive boards both for the investment bank and for the group. One of SBC’s top people explains: “Solo is Ospel’s right-hand man. As chief operating officer he is now in charge of everything except trading…he’s being groomed [to take over from Ospel]. It’s hard to find people who don’t feel this is appropriate at some point.”
Because of what is perceived as Ospel’s close reliance on Solo, many thought it surprising that Hans de Gier was appointed chief executive of SBC Warburg. De Gier was summoned back from a tour in Singapore which many had seen as sidelining. But many insiders and outsiders believe Solo simply wasn’t ready to be CEO. His youth and his reluctance to deal with a public role counted against him. Ospel vaunts the de Gier/Solo team as the perfect combination and in recent interviews has made it clear where the skills line is drawn: “Solo… responsible for daily operations… is the perfect COO and Hans is the perfect CEO.” But a former executive of the group says: “Ospel gave de Gier the job because he was the public face and Solo was not ready.”
Solo has no public face. He studiously avoids press attention despite Ospel’s attempts to persuade him to strike a higher profile. His own PR people have great difficulty managing Solo’s image. They alternately describe him as shy, or as a team player who doesn’t want individual attention. Other colleagues believe the real issue is Solo’s feeling that it is impossible to control interviews. “He believes that a journalist will write what he’s going to write anyway,” says one. “He’s extremely articulate, which is why we felt it was a pity that he never talks to the public.”
Weinberger defends Solo: “He’s homo rationalis, saying ‘just leave me alone, I have a business to run’. He’s not fame or ego driven.”
Take no prisoners
Mention Solo’s name to those who have worked with him at SBC Warburg or O’Connor and the inevitable epithet is “brilliant” or “focused”. “We were looking at doing a deal with a money-management company and brought Solo along. He cuts through a complicated situation and gets to the heart of it. He’s a take-no-prisoners, business guy,” says Weinberger. Another colleague comments: “He can cut through to the core of an issue like no one I have ever seen. Absolute brilliance.” Colleagues say that at board meetings Solo has something meaningful to say about each item on the agenda.
The respect for him internally is beyond doubt, but many in their dealings with him say there is little warmth. Colleagues say he can be dismissive in conversations if you don’t think as fast as he does. “He can be very blunt and cold,” says one. “But a lot of successful places are run by cold, hard people.”
Of Solo the person, little is known. People who think they know him well in business admit that they know little about him as a person. His first resumé, distributed by the PR department was terse, with little information. These days journalists receive an amended version that even lists his hobbies: windsurfing and skiing. A former colleague implies that Solo works 24 hours a day: “It’s pretty difficult to windsurf in your office.” Leslie Holstrom
