Rainer Gut


Rainer Emil Gut colloquially Rainer E. Gut was a Swiss banker and executive who most prominently served as Chairman of Credit Suisse. His net worth was estimated at $140 million by Bilanz magazine.

Early life and education

Gut was born 24 September 1932 in Baar near Zug, Switzerland, the fourth of five children, to Emil Gut, a bank director, and Rosa Gut. His siblings were; Beatrice Gasser, Esther Wettach, Günther Gut and Firmin Gut.
He attended schools in Zug, London, and Paris.

Career

In 1968 he became a general partner at Lazard Frères & Co., New York and in 1971 president and CEO of Swiss American Corporation in New York, a U.S. investment banking subsidiary of the then SKA. In 1973 he was a member of the Executive Board and from 1977 he acted as spokesman for "Schweizerische Kreditanstalt", of which he became chairman in 1982.
From 1983 to 2000 he was chairman of the Board of Directors of SKA and Credit Suisse respectively, and between 1986 and 2000 also chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Group. From 2000 to 2005, he served as chairman of Nestlé S.A.. He held directorships with several international corporations, including Alusuisse, Bayer, Swiss Re, Swissair, Daimler Chrysler Switzerland, Ciba Geigy/Novartis, Elektrowatt, and Sulzer. Gut was honorary chairman of Credit Suisse Group from 2000 until 2023.
Under Gut's leadership, SKA developed into a leading international financial services group with a focus on investment banking, asset management, and insurance. In the Holocaust debate of the 1990s about dormant assets, he was committed to the creation of a humanitarian fund by the Swiss business community. Thanks in large part to Gut, the settlement between the Swiss banks and the Jewish plaintiffs in New York was reached in 1998.

Personal life

In 1957, Gut married American-born Josephine "José" Lorenz, a daughter of John Lorenz and Claire Lorenz, both of Detroit, Michigan. They had four children;
In the 1960s, the family resided in New York City, where at least the youngest sons were born. In 1973, they relocated to Bassersdorf for several decades and later to Maur. In 2019 his wealth was estimated at CHF 125 million by the business magazine Bilanz.
Gut died on 11 October 2023, at the age of 91.

Literature