Sushant Sharma left the role in June and will remain with the foundation as an advisor on multi-asset investment strategy, sustainable and impact investing until the end of 2026. Sharma's departure follows his appointment to the impact advisory board of Marcuard Family Office earlier this year. Fondation Botnar has not found a successor yet. «The succession process is ongoing,» the organisation told finews.com. «In the interim, responsibilities are being covered internally to ensure continuity.»

«As our inaugural chief investment officer, Sushant played an instrumental role in shaping and stewarding our investment strategy, embedding sustainable and impact-oriented investing and contributing to our broader strategic work during a pivotal period in the foundation’s development,» Fondation Botnar shared via LinkedIn.

«He also helped develop our venture philanthropy approach and portfolio, enabling Fondation Botnar to become one of the few Swiss foundations to invest in early-stage start-ups with the potential to positively transform health, education, and technology systems for young people in low- and middle- income countries.»

Swiss Investment Heavyweight

Sharma has over 30 years of experience in private and institutional asset management. He originally joined Fondation Botnar as its chief investment officer in 2018.

Before joining the foundation, Sharma was the head of risk management and treasury at the Swiss Finance and Property Group in Zurich. Earlier in his career, he worked at Novartis International in Basel, where he served as head of group pension risk management and group treasury. He spent the previous four years as the firm’s head of portfolio, currency and risk management. Notably, Sharma was also the CIO at Maerki Baumann & Co for seven years.

From 1995 until 2000, he worked at Credit Suisse in Zurich as head of portfolio management and an equity portfolio manager.

Alongside his advisory role at Fondation Botnar, Sharma serves as a sustainability advisor to Pensionskasse Stadt Zürich. He was also a member of the client advisory board at Federated Hermes until May this year.