ISFB interviews

Nicolas Vialis has been an ISFB lecturer and coach for many years. We interviewed him to find out more about his rich career path.

Mr. Vialis, you are a lecturer at ISFB, where you teach finance. Can you tell us about your experience as a lecturer?

I teach all subjects relating to portfolio management, macroeconomics, asset classes, derivatives/structured products, funds and so on. I'm both a generalist and a specialist, which means I can teach these subjects at different levels, for example in highly specialized courses such as the CFA or CAIA, or in more general courses. It's my Swiss Army knife side of finance. As an ISFB lecturer and ISFB coach, I am regularly called in to help individual specialists prepare for exams, such as the ISFB Private Banking Certificate or the SAQ CWMA Certification. I never hesitate to use practical examples and real-life situations to stimulate my audience's interest.
For example, I teach behavioral finance, a subject that is often new to participants, but nonetheless fascinating because it is so close to what happens in a customer relationship. This subject lends itself to many practical examples, where we find all our bad habits and cognitive biases when faced with a decision to make.
I always particularly enjoy discovering an audience with different interests and knowledge, and adapting to the level required of me. Finally, I also act as a member of the jury for dissertation defenses. It's always very interesting to listen to passionate students defend their research work, which often takes several months to complete.

Can you tell us about your academic and professional background?

I graduated from EPFL where I learned to program robots and machine a part. My studies naturally predestined me to become a microtechnology engineer. But I must confess that today, my technical skills in this field are limited to assembling furniture with a Swedish name that I sometimes find hard to pronounce.
Following internships at Ferrier Lullin, I quickly became interested in investment, and decided to continue my studies at HEC Lausanne to obtain a Master's degree in financial engineering. I then went on to specialize in CFA and CAIA, a real challenge. Since then, I've been constantly updating my knowledge by taking qualifications such as the ESG CFA (for which I'm also a lecturer at ISFB) and sustainable finance.
My career path is rich in different experiences. I began my career at Ferrier Lullin, where I experienced my first M&A when it was taken over by the Julius Baer Group. I then worked for UBS in Advisory. I then spent a few years at Pictet, in their Research department. I was a member of the investment committee and learned a lot from the private bank's economists and the CIO at the time, Yves Bonzon, whose broad general knowledge impressed me. I then moved on to smaller companies, particularly third-party asset managers. It was at Bruellan that I spent the best years of my professional life, working with Florian Marini, also a lecturer at the ISFB, on the creation and management of equity funds, especially in Switzerland.
Through my various teaching experiences, my network has widened, and I'm surprised to regularly come across someone on the train or bus who has had me as a teacher in one of these settings. Some are amused to recall some of my famous teaching anecdotes.

A large part of your job at the ISFB is to provide customized training for the Institute's members. How does this work?

The training needs of institutional members are collected and analyzed centrally by ISFB engineering, which acts as a design and distribution hub. Depending on the pedagogical objectives sought, and when I meet the specifications, the mission is entrusted to me. I then create the course in line with the customer's requirements, and deliver it either on the customer's premises or in-house at the Institute. It's an iterative process that enables me to meet the member's specific skills development needs, while drawing on the Institute's corpus of skills and the synergies it has developed over almost 40 years within its ecosystem.

Nicolas Vialis

Lecturer ISFB

Strategic Business Area 1

Continuing Education

The Institute aims to maximize the collective and individual skills of the banking ecosystem in French-speaking Switzerland. It trains specialists in technical fields as well as in managerial and interactional skills.

The training program offers different types of training in Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retail & Corporate Banking, Support & Back-Office, Legal, Risk & Compliance and Management.

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