When a session doesn't get going, Patrick Odier likes to use pen and paper. Then he scribbles a few caricatures of those present and circulates the cartoons. This usually causes amusement, which gets the situation going again.

This habit goes well with someone who many immediately characterize as personable, humorous and approachable. But it is not necessarily common for Geneva private bankers, who are said to be rather enraptured and certainly not funny.

54-year-old Patrick Odier is atypical for his guild - eloquent, cosmopolitan, enthusiastic. "He always sees things from the positive side," says Jacques Rossier, himself a senior banker at the Geneva private bank Lombard Odier & Cie, which employs around 2,000 people and manages CHF 134 billion in customer deposits.

Positive thinking is likely to become even more important for Odier when he becomes president of the Swiss Bankers Association, i.e. as a figurehead represents a professional group whose representatives have recently made a rather bad impression. But who is this man who will take over one of the most difficult positions in Switzerland on September 17? And: Why does someone impose such an office at all?