Ariane de Rothschild on why she wants to shake up private banking. Head of Edmond de Rothschild on the future of wealth and the family feud.
ROTHSCHILD INTERVIEW
Mason Wood
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Chase Nguyen
Thoughts ?
Ethan Edwards
Just kill her and take her shit.
Evan Rogers
behind a paywall post it here
Anthony Reed
Because she wants to change it into a new system the goyim aren't ready to turn on them? Too many rich gentiles?
Ayden Mitchell
Inb4 the goyim know
Josiah Cook
gib shekels goyim
James Baker
Josiah Torres
“It’s very exhilarating!” It has just been suggested that I take a moto-taxi (a motorcycle) to catch my train after our interview — and Ariane de Rothschild is tickled at the thought. “Everybody does it. I said I’ll do it too, but my girls said, ‘Oh no you can’t’,” she says.
The girls — Ariane’s four daughters with her husband Benjamin de Rothschild — are clearly a singular influence on the forceful philanthropist turned chief executive. Born in El Salvador and raised in Colombia and Zaire, Ariane Langner married into what is probably the most famous banking dynasty in the world. Since taking over in 2015 as head of Edmond de Rothschild, the private bank and asset manager founded by her father-in-law — her husband is chairman of the board — she has become one of its most prominent figures.
We are sitting in her apartment on a sweltering day in Paris, just days after the longstanding feud between Ariane’s wing of the family and that of her cousin by marriage, David de Rothschild, from the Rothschild and Co wing, has been resolved. She refers to the agreement as “settling with David”. At the heart of the legal battle was the idea that neither side should have the right to use just the Rothschild name, lest it cause confusion among would-be clients. Part of that confusion arose from the different natures of the two businesses: while Edmond de Rothschild focuses on private banking and asset management, Rothschild & Co, while growing its own wealth management business, is a mergers and acquisitions specialist.
“Even here, a lot of bankers felt uncomfortable with the lack of clarity,” she says. “I don’t think it’s healthy that you receive here a phone call saying ‘Allo, am I contacting Rothschild and you are not honest enough to say: ‘No, it’s not the one you think.’”
The settlement was “definitely a relief”, she says. Referring to the fact that the French branch of the Rothschild family is now in its seventh generation, she says: “Generations tend to drag on layers and layers of unsaid things, so this is a very good reboot.”
But while the lawsuit she initiated was the most public change Ariane has made, there have been plenty of others behind the scenes: reorganising the bank, promoting women to senior leadership roles and cutting back on overseas expansion to focus on core activities. “When I took over, it was a classic case of businesses that had had very fast growth in a very favourable market, so [it was] an environment where, to a certain extent, people ended up believing the sky was the limit,” she says. “With 2007/08 all of a sudden everybody said: oh maybe the sky’s not the limit but kept hoping it would get back to what they were used to.”
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She broke down boundaries between the various parts of the business, which include banking, vineyards, hotels, property, foundations and boat racing. “I don’t believe in silos,” she says. “A banker or winemaker should be at the same level. My father-in-law [Edmond de Rothschild] used to call the wine business ‘les danseuses’ [which she translates as ‘the little capricious toy’] and I thought it was very wrong. These businesses are profitable.”
The firm had a branch in Hong Kong that was not profitable, so she closed it. “While I’m resizing the business I cannot develop Asia - of course, you cannot forget Asia, so that will come,” she says.
Her approach has, if not exactly ruffled feathers among the bankers, perhaps caused confusion among those more accustomed to a traditional approach.
She tells me about one of her first meetings with her head of French private banking and asset management, Vincent Taupin. Madame de Rothschild had just signed the company up to the United Nations Development Programme’s sustainable development goals and had told her employees they had to take it seriously. Her team gifted her two beehives, which she installed on the roof of the building.
“One of the first meetings with Vincent, we had one of the first samples of one of the honey pots and I think he freaked out. We had a meeting on banking and I said: “Did you see my honey pots?” and I think he thought: “Oh, this is going to be a difficult meeting.”
Ryan Bell
But Ariane de Rothschild is firm in her view that traditional private banking needs to be shaken up. “It was about getting them back to the core of banking on the one hand. It’s refocusing on service, service, service, client needs, client needs, client needs.”
“It’s very important that my bankers know what wealth is about,” she adds. “I expect more of my bankers than just selling products. Clients want to know more than just the products and I think it’s important to share with them our knowledge and philanthropy.”
It sounds like she is inviting them to be members of a club, I venture. “Exactly,” she says. “A lot of the clients, they’re interested to know us as a family, how we allocate. A lot - a lot - of the questions are [about] managing future generations, which is one of the hardest questions to answer.”
Defining the family’s values was important for positioning Edmond de Rothschild, she says. “We said: what are we really about? We did a lot of work on values and company culture. Rothschild is history, it’s family, it’s especially in countries like France close to a myth, but I said we are a real company with real targets.”
The core value that she believes her branch of the family demonstrates is panache. “On our side there’s a panache: the sailing, the gigantic parties that my father-in-law used to throw — he used to sing Sinatra at 2am at the bank parties. Panache is a way of being — it’s not vulgar.”
Pride is another core family value, she says. “When I grew up in Africa, pride was a very strong value. When I moved to Europe one thing that shocked me was a lot of people don’t have much pride. [I said] to bankers: a lot of you are arrogant and pride is the opposite of arrogance. Being very demanding of yourself and the people around you: that’s pride. Arrogance is self-centered - it’s very destructive.”
She is a fan of robo-advice - the artificial intelligence that many banks are developing to help clients manage their investments. But it threatens to shake up the industry, leading to questions over whether the private banker is a dying breed. De Rothschild thinks not. “I think the fear of some bankers - are we going to be replaced? I really don’t think so. I think the content of their jobs is going to be all the more interesting. The crunching, the searching: a lot will be done better than you can possibly do yourself.”
What does that leave? “I think emotions, thank god. Dreams, aspirations, real stories, authenticity.” She comes back to the idea that clients want to know what the de Rothschild family have invested in and why. “People remain highly sensitive to the human factor. The ability to share the passion and the logic on why you invest in certain companies: I don’t think robo-adviser will do it.”
Christopher Reyes
She argues that her company is well placed to meet the needs of the next generation, who tend to be more engaged in social affairs. “For me, it’s a very comfortable zone because that’s what this family has always done,” she says. “A lot of millennials come to us and say, ‘How do I find my balance?’ Surprisingly, as a very old brand, we attract a lot of younger wealth because we connect very strongly on philanthropy and entrepreneurship.”
The Rothschild family is of particular interest among Asians, she says. “You’d be surprised to see the number of Asian clients especially whose only question is: how do you get to seven generations? It’s an obsession to establish a dynasty.”
France under Macron has been good for the wealthy, she says - a view echoed by many other private bankers in Paris. Labelled the “president of the rich,” since his election last year Macron has cut taxes on the wealthy and businesses and vowed to turn the country into a “start-up nation”.
“The tech crowd is amazingly vibrant,” she says. “[Compared to] three years ago France today is a very different atmosphere. I think the culture is changing as well: France has always had this culture that making money is not perceived well and I think this is really disappearing.”
Her view on quotas for women is nuanced. “People are making quotas the end but it should be the means. I’m very much in favour of helping open the door. Once the door is open, it’s really up to you to make the difference.”
Referring to the company’s now chief operating officer, Sabine Rabald, she says: “I said come and do operations, she said err, I don’t know and I said neither do I know how to be a CEO so if we fail, we fail collectively. I’m giving you a try. I think women need to be pushed a bit harder. Honestly I think once you put them in these positions once they’re there I don’t see a difference between men and women at all.”
Middle management at Edmond de Rothschild is still only 24 per cent women, which she says is a focus.
As perhaps only the very wealthy can, she eschews a traditional banker’s concern with performance. “At the end of the day, plus one, minus one — really? Does it really make that big a difference to me? No, what makes a big difference to me is to have a banker who understands my needs.”
It is clear that Ariane de Rothschild does not identify as a banker. “What I’m trying to build is a bank that is not just a bank. I don’t think tomorrow’s clients are interested in just a bank.” She is also used to fighting her corner. She says those who work for her are “starting to understand” that she wants them to think in terms of the bigger picture. “Asking of them to have a much larger view of Edmond de Rothschild, really develop a sense of curiosity: it’s tough for a banker.” But she adds: “I think some are starting to enjoy it, because at the beginning they were saying: what the hell is she asking us to do?”
Still, as I cling to a moto-taxi racing through the streets of Paris a short while later, I feel some sympathy for Ariane’s daughters and I am glad, for her sake at least, that there are some battles she does not win.
Nolan King
All articles on her husband, who is the richest Rothschild (and men alive)
Jack Martinez
Thanks user.
Adrian Ward
LOL! Thank you Jesus for letting these kikes get so arrogant. This female will be like every other female CEO and destroy her company. Other Rothschilds will get mad and try to boot her out of the family. Her husband will get angry.
INTERNAL STRIFE IN HOUSE ROTHSCHILD
Screen cap this. In less than a decade Rothschilds will be in an internal war. No matter who wins, the losers always remember…
Robert Baker
Her name is Langner and she's simply establishing her own branch of the family with 5 daughters. Her father was an executive at Hoechst. Hoechst has a lot of interesting patents. Isn't like shes not from an old family. It's the age of Woman, after all.
Aaron Martinez
It is her father's name ?
Dr. Fred Langner. Hoechst AG, Kunststoff‐Forschung, Postfach 800
If you read more about her, notice that they do all they can to hide the history of her parents. The only thing you can find about her dad is that "he was an executive at a big company". This marriage is the biggest blow to the Rothschilds. She is gentile.
She even admits that ultra-orthodox Jews hate her.
Angel Flores
RIP Rothschild banking dominance
Leo Harris
...
Jeremiah Morris
They had Obongo fuck Switzerland and just about everyone else under some leftist, bullshit pretexts to take the business to American under their control. The rothschild office in fucking Reno creates all the shell companies now and because of aml and kys bullshit. US banks are key to shitbags like them hiding dirty money.
Xavier Moore
She's a figurehead at best. That's how it seems to always be when a woman is being heralded as a "leader" in the media.
Juan Thompson
Oh no no no no.
Nicholas Phillips
She needs to be arrested and eliminated. Period. These people are absolute cancer.
Caleb Carter
Interesting. Since we're talking about the Rothschilds. Found this pic the other day with Rachel Chandler. (pizzagate, lolita express, etc)
Grayson Cox
This is the Viking way–eliminate problems.