5. Joachim Straehle

The Swiss veteran was among the first private bankers to publicly call for a reckoning with Switzerland's past as an offshore haven. Straehle was one of a host of Swiss bankers to emerge from Credit Suisse with CEO jobs at rival banks (Veit de Maddelena at Rothschild and Boris Collardi at Julius Baer were others).

Straehle began his career as an apprentice with Genossenschaftlichen Zentralbank, which today is known as Bank Cler, later adding management training. He left Credit Suisse in 2006 for the top job at Sarasin, which he left in 2011, two years after the Basel-based private bank was bought by Brazilian-Swiss Safra. Straehle resurfaced as CEO of rival EFG International in 2015, where his tenure was marked by the turbulent acquisition of Banca della Svizzera Italiana or BSI.

To Straehle's horror, the Lugano-based lender emerged in the 1MDB money-laundering scandal, complicating the deal. He had also faced scandal at Sarasin in a long-running spat in Germany with clients over cum-ex products, or questionable tax-savings products. Since retiring for the second time in 2017, he sat on the board of a Latsis family vehicle and also advised a Genevan wealth manager on its expansion. Straehle died unexpectedly in July, aged 60.