Dr. Christoph Künzle, CFA
Dr. Christoph Künzle, CFA
ZHAW
School of Management and Law
Fachstelle für Personal Finance & Wealth Management
Gertrudstrasse 8
8400 Winterthur
Work at ZHAW
Position
Focus
Teaching
Experience
- Founder & CEO
FIN21 Ltd
05 / 2025 - today - Se
AZEK
02 / 2021 - today - Director
Deloitte
02 / 2017 - 08 / 2026 - Senior Lecturer
Kalaidos
12 / 2019 - 05 / 2026 - Strategieberater
Self employed
06 / 2015 - 01 / 2017 - Managing Partner, Member of Board of Directors
Advanta Capital Ltd
12 / 2011 - 05 / 2015 - Head of Institutional Sales, Vice President
Mercer Private Markets (SCM)
01 / 2009 - 12 / 2011 - Mergers & Acquisitions Manager
Syngenta
06 / 2007 - 12 / 2008 - Consultant
Bain & Company
07 / 2004 - 03 / 2007
Education and Continuing education
Education
- Ph.D. / Law
University of St.Gallen (HSG)
10 / 2000 - 03 / 2004 - M.A. HSG / Business Administration
University of St.Gallen (HSG)
10 / 2000 - 03 / 2003 - M.A. HSG / Law
University of St.Gallen (HSG)
10 / 1996 - 10 / 2000 - Matura / Type A (Ancient Languages)
Kantonsschule Zürcher Oberland (KZO)
10 / 1989 - 01 / 1996
Continuing Education
- CAS Higher and Professional Education
ZHAW
12 / 2023 - CFA Charterholder
CFA Institute
09 / 2010
Network
Membership of networks
Awards
Outstanding Contribution to Wealth Management Thought Leadership (Individual)
WealthBriefing
02 / 2025
Social media
Media presence
- Bloomberg (19 October 2023)
- Finews (25 September 2023)
- Finews (21 March 2024)
- Finews (18 November 2024) - ZHAW Swiss Private Banking Conference
- Finews (4 November 2024) - ZHAW Study: Who Are the Best Private Banks in Switzerland?
- Finews (29 August 2025)
- Finews (8 December 2025)
Selected publications
- Künzle, C., Baumann, C. and Feldmann, S. (2026) Unabhängige Vermögensverwalter in der Schweiz 2026. Zürich: FIN21. Available at: https://wealthsummit.ch/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Unabhangige_Vermogensverwalter_in_der_Schweiz_2026.pdf.
- Künzle, C., Bachmann, C. and Feldmann, S. (2025) Wealth management in Switzerland and Liechtenstein 2025. Zurich: FIN21. Available at: https://wealthsummit.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Wealth_Management_Switzerland_Liechtenstein_2025.pdf.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2024) Wealth management in Switzerland 2024. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2511.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2024) Wealth management in Switzerland – Edition 2. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2497.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2023) Wealth management in Switzerland – Edition 1. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2526.
Publications
Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed
Künzle, C., Baumann, C. and Feldmann, S. (2026) 'Wealth management in Switzerland and Liechtenstein 2025 : structural trends, performance dynamics, and strategic imperatives', Journal of Financial Services, 2026(2), pp. 232–239. Available at: http://institute.projectivegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/03/Projective-Institute-JoFS2-Data-AI.pdf.
Book chapters, peer-reviewed
- Hauf, P., Künzle, C. and Sigg, A. (2025) 'Best Practices : Wealth-Management mit Künstlicher Intelligenz transformieren', in Seidel, M. and Reuse, S. (eds) Banking & Innovation 2024/2025 : Ideen und Erfolgskonzepte für die Praxis. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 235–249. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-46235-2_14.
- Breymann, H. E., Hauf, P. and Künzle, C. (2024) 'Venturing into new ways of regulatory reporting and systemic risk analysis', in Banking Resilience: New Insights on Corporate Governance, Sustainability and Digital Innovation. Singapur: World Scientific Publishing, pp. 417–452. doi: 10.1142/9781800614291_0012.
Other publications
- Künzle, C. and Baumann, C. (2026) Shaping the future of wealth management : NextGen Private Banking Clients 2026 – Singapore Edition. Zurich: FIN21. Available at: https://wealthsummit.ch/studies/nextgen-private-banking-clients-2026-singapore/.
- Künzle, C., Baumann, C. and Feldmann, S. (2026) Unabhängige Vermögensverwalter in der Schweiz 2026. Zürich: FIN21. Available at: https://wealthsummit.ch/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Unabhangige_Vermogensverwalter_in_der_Schweiz_2026.pdf.
- Künzle, C., Bachmann, C. and Feldmann, S. (2025) Wealth management in Switzerland and Liechtenstein 2025. Zurich: FIN21. Available at: https://wealthsummit.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Wealth_Management_Switzerland_Liechtenstein_2025.pdf.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2024) Wealth management in Switzerland 2024. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2511.
- Lagassé, J.-F. et al. (2024) Seismic waves impacting leading financial centres. Deloitte. Available at: https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-zone2/ch/en/docs/industries/financial-services/2024/ch-deloitte-international-wealth-management-en.pdf.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2024) Wealth management in Switzerland – Edition 2. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2497.
- Lagasse, J.-F. et al. (2023) Swiss affluent clients : building a winning proposition for a growing client segment. Deloitte. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/financial-services/deloitte-en-fs-affluent-study.pdf.
- Lagassé, J.-F. and Künzle, C. (2023) 'Wealth management trends', Art & Finance Report 2023, pp. 124–133. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/privatemarket/art-finance-report-2023.pdf.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2023) Wealth management in Switzerland – Edition 1. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2526.
Oral conference contributions and abstracts
- Künzle, C. (2026) 'Unabhängige Vermögensverwalter in der Schweiz', in Independent Wealth Manager Summit, Zurich, Switzerland, 18. March, 2026.
- Künzle, C. (2026) 'Swiss Wealth & Asset Management – Markt- und Human-Capital-Insights', in FINANZ, Zürich, Schweiz, 25.-26. Februar 2026.
- Künzle, C. and Hefti, J. (2023) 'ZHAW Wealth Management Studie : Ergebnisse und Branchenüberblick', in 1. Fachkonferenz Wealth Planning, Winterthur, Schweiz, 11. Mai 2023.
Publications before appointment at the ZHAW
- Wettbewerb und Intervention in der EU: Praxis der europäischen Wettbewerbspolitik im Lichte der Industriepolitik (Dissertation 2004)
- Indexierte Immobilienanlagen - Passive Strategien im Vormarsch
- Nachfrageüberschuss in Agrargütern
- The Robots are Here - The Rise of Robo-Advisors in Asia-Pacific
- Ecosystems 2021 - was bringt die Zukunft. Gestaltung und Positionierung der Finanzindustrie
- Navigating towards a 'next normal' after COVID-19 - Lessons from APAC Wealth Managers
- Wealth Management: Winning Transformation Strategies for a Decade of Major Change
- Swiss Affluent Clients: Building a winning proposition for a growing client segment