Gilbert de Botton

Who was Gilbert de Botton?

Gilbert de Botton was a financial pioneer in the 20th century, who is considered the inventor of the open architecture model of asset management. He was fluent in 12 languages. He was also a prominent art collector.

In 1968, when the British and French Rothschild banking houses decided jointly to establish an operation in Zurich, de Botton was recruited as its first managing director. He went on to serve briefly as president of Rothschilds in New York in 1982.

In 1983, Gilbert de Botton founded the Global Asset Management financial firm, a multinational asset management firm, later incorporated into UBS AG until December 2005, when it was acquired by Julius Baer. On selling his stakes in the company in 1999, de Botton received a large sum of money, whose size has never been officially confirmed by buyer or seller.

In 2003, GAM and the London School of Economics and Political Science have announced the creation of the ‘GAM Gilbert de Botton Award in Finance Research’, annual award given in recognition of outstanding research in finance, in honour of Gilbert de Botton.