Credit Suisse’s Asia Pacific CEO Helman Sitohang is a consummate dealmaker in the truest sense, overseeing over US$200 billion worth of capital-raising deals, and mergers and acquisitions in just over 20 years at the bank.

He joined the Swiss bank in 1998 at the height of the Asian financial crisis, and endured mass unemployment, food shortages and economic upheaval in his home country of Indonesia to stay the course, rejecting attractive offers from banks in Europe. By 1999, Sitohang was country CEO for Credit Suisse in Indonesia, occupying the position until 2010 when he began to take on more regional responsibilities. He was appointed Asia Pacific CEO in 2015.

The graduate of Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology has had an enviable run at the helm of Credit Suisse; under his watch, the financial institution was named Best Investment Bank, Financing House and Wealth Manager in Asia by Euromoney in 2017 and 2018. Sitohang himself was the recipient of FinanceAsia’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 2015.