ODDO BHF creates the position of Deputy CEO, to be filled by Simone Westerfeld
Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, 21st January 2026
The ODDO BHF Group develops a new ambition for growth, based on a new organization, structured around different types of clients. To drive this dynamic forward, Simone Westerfeld will join the ODDO BHF Group on June 1, 2026 as Deputy CEO. Subject to approval by the French (ACPR) and German (BaFin) regulatory authorities, she will be appointed to the Management Board of ODDO BHF SE in Frankfurt and to the Management Board of ODDO BHF SCA in Paris.
Simone Westerfeld will work with all members of the Executive Committee (General Management Committee or GMC) to formalize a growth plan for the coming years, based on innovation and new technologies, as well as an organization structured not by expertise but by client type — private clients, family businesses, foundations, family offices, corporate decision-makers, institutional investors, and wealth management advisors — in order to best meet their needs.
Philippe Oddo, Managing Partner and CEO of ODDO BHF, says: “With her academic background in finance, her experience in private client management, her past as CEO of a medium-sized bank, her expertise in implementing mergers between large banks and her experience in managing private clients throughout Switzerland, Simone Westerfeld has all the skills needed to play a key role in the Group’s future. Simone also demonstrates an openness to different cultures, coming from Germany, having worked mainly in Switzerland, and now moving to France to learn about its ecosystem. Together with the members of the General Management Committee, I look forward to her joining the Group”.
Simone Westerfeld, ODDO BHF’s new Deputy CEO, explains: “I am delighted to be joining the circle of partners at ODDO BHF and would like to thank them for the trust they have placed in me. The consistent transformation towards an efficient, modern and client-centric business model opens enormous growth opportunities for ODDO BHF in the European market. As a family-run, independent European private bank, ODDO BHF has credibility in its focus on discerning clients such as family businesses, foundations, family offices, corporate decision-makers and investors. I am very much looking forward to actively shaping this path to innovation-based, sustainable growth together with the General Management Committee. Over the next 5-10 years, we want to open a new chapter of partnership in the bank’s 175-year history.”
ODDO BHF is an independent European financial Group organized around four business lines: Private Wealth Management, Asset Management, Investment Banking, and Corporate Banking, Asset servicing & Metals. The Group Management Committee (GMC) is the Group’s executive body. Philippe Oddo is the CEO. Nicolas Chaput heads Asset Management and Private Equity. Grégoire Charbit heads Metals Trading, Export Finance and Corporate Credit Banking. Benoit Claveranne oversees Innovation and Transformation. Noemie Ellezam is responsible for Marketing and Data. Joachim Häger is responsible for Private Wealth Management. Alexander Ilgen is Chief Financial Officer & Head of Corporate Development. Isabel Jahn heads the Group’s Human Resources, Christophe Tadié heads the Legal, Risk and Compliance departments. Christian Zahn heads the Corporate and Investment Banking. The Oddo family holds a 65 % stake in the Group’s capital.
About Simone Westerfeld
Simone Westerfeld has been with UBS since 2019, most recently as COO in the Group Integration Office with global responsibility for Group Internal Consulting. Prior to that, she was a member of the Executive Board of UBS Switzerland since 2020 and headed the Swiss-wide business for private clients (Personal Banking). She is also Professor of Banking & Finance at the School of Finance at the University of St. Gallen (HSG). From 2015 to 2019, she held various management positions, including CFO and CRO, as well as interim CEO and Chair of the Group Executive Board at Basler Kantonalbank. Westerfeld began her career at UBS in Zurich in 2000 after completing a banking apprenticeship at Deutsche Bank and studying business administration in St. Gallen and Stockholm.
