Hans de Gier, chief executive officer of the Julius Baer Group, has been named “The Outstanding Global Private Banking Leader” by Private Banker International magazine.

Commenting on the award, John Evans, managing editor of Private Banker International said: “The 'new' Julius Baer is one of the assured success stories in private banking. As a bank that after the dot.com bust was forced to completely rethink its model, Julius Baer really went back to the fundamentals, even to the extent of terminating the traditional control exercised by the Baer family. Its remarkable transaction with UBS, buying three private banks and GAM in late 2005, has been a transforming deal. The renaissance became evident in the first half of 2006, when Julius Baer started to see net new inflows of funds for the first time in a number of years.

By some measures, Julius Baer now manages more wealthy individuals' money than Deutsche Bank. Julius Baer has been rapidly using this strength and its brand to expand its offshore wealth management business into growth markets that offer the prospect of continued strong inflows of net new money.”

The awards are based on nominations for excellence in the various categories from the magazine’s readership. The award winners are chosen by a jury of independent experts to ensure impartiality.