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Eric Varvel, sole chief executive of Credit Suisse |
Eric Varvel is an American who embraced the game of football long before most of his compatriots. As Euromoney meets him in June, he is looking ahead to travelling to Johannesburg to attend his fourth consecutive World Cup final. Varvel’s career – which in June reached new heights with his confirmation as sole chief executive of the investment bank – has also helped him to see at an early stage the opportunities in emerging markets, which he specialized in for 15 years, including setting up Credit Suisse’s market-leading investment bank in Indonesia.
Since he became co-CEO of the investment bank last year, he has focused a lot of his attention on ensuring that Credit Suisse builds on its strengths to become the leading firm across the emerging markets, especially as the volume of business from region to region – such as China to Latin America and the Middle East – is one of the fastest-growing areas.
"Previously we had a hub-and-spoke strategy," Varvel says. "There was no natural linkage across the regions, or across the entire bank.