Rolf’s story

Being trusted and treated as part of the team from your very first day

Rolf started as an intern at Rothschild & Co's London office over a decade ago, and is now a Director in the Global Advisory division at our New York office.

"As a Swiss-Ugandan, I grew up splitting time between both countries, but most of my education was in Switzerland. I was keen to study at an English university and undertook numerous internships at a variety of businesses throughout my time in the UK.

At many of the organisations where I completed internships you were often assigned a specific, designated role. You were not expected to stray outside of your defined role, which implied you learned very little outside of your sphere and by definition had a limited contribution in formulating and providing advice to clients.

In that respect, the internship at Rothschild & Co really stood out. Your views are sought after and valued. You’re trusted with real responsibilities and are treated as part of the team from day one.

Even now, after working at the firm for a number of years, I am continuously learning. One of the underlying mantras I’ve carried throughout my career – and encourage everyone in my team to consider too – is to keep on learning, growing, and progressing.

It’s a belief that led me to take a step back, once I’d risen to a mid-level Associate in Rothschild & Co’s Financial Institutions Group. I really scrutinised the career paths of the bankers I admired at the time.

I found they each had experience in various sectors outside of the one in which they currently operated. As a result, I decided to pursue a lateral move to another team so I could broaden my experience in the same way.

When it came to choosing a new area to transfer to, Restructuring seemed the most logical, as it afforded me the opportunity to see a wide range of sectors. And, with a strong franchise in the US, it presented the opportunity to work in a new geography. Everyone involved was incredibly supportive and encouraged the move.

Diversity is hugely important – not only to me as a Director within the firm – but within the organisation as a whole. At Rothschild & Co, we don’t have any products to offer our clients other than our ability to advise them with our collective intellect and insights. As a result, it’s imperative that we’re constantly adding value to our service offering.

You’re unable to do so if everyone stems from the same sort of background, and are constantly thinking the same way and doing the same things. It leaves very little room to be creative and to be at the forefront of delivering innovative thinking and solutions.

That’s why it’s crucial we, as a firm, have a truly diverse workforce. Diverse teams, consisting of people from various background, are the most effective means of enabling us to create innovative, creative outcomes, and to better advise our clients."

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