Alberto Valenzuela

• Lesson one: Golf teaches you to be humble; you never know what will happen next.
• Lesson two: To maintain your standard, you have to keep working on your game. Same goes for business.
• Lesson three: It’s a game of rules and etiquette. You have to get on with people.
• Lesson four: You have to know where you want to hit the ball, but you need to be aware of the pitfalls. If you focus on the negatives, the results can be disastrous.
• Lesson five: You have to be curious in this business. It’s not all about golf. I’m curious by nature. I put a lot of emphasis on this quality – in investments, with colleagues.

Your greatest lesson off the fairway?

In the late 90s, the company I was working for had to downsize from 80 to 20 people after over-expansion. It was painful. Now I look for profitable growth. Efficient operations make money; bulky operations slowly die.

What about his education?

Alberto spent his early childhood in Mexico. As a teenager he studied at the American School in Paris. He earned a golf scholarship to UCLA, before returning to Paris to gain a Masters from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and graduate from the École nationale d’administration (ENA).

Why did you join Pictet?

I joined because of the people I met here. I felt it was a good match. Now four years on, I can safely say it’s the best place I’ve ever worked.

Even better than caddying for your daughter at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games?

Caddying is very similar to my daily life as a wealth manager: a caddy advises the player and all the upside is for the player and any blame is for the caddy. There’s a high correlation with the way a wealth manager works for a client. In golf, a player will always need a caddy… and they’re unlikely to be replaced by robots!!