Geneva  - One of Switzerland's largest private wealth managers will have a new chief executive officer come May, aged only 34 years old, the Julius Baer bank announced Tuesday.

The private bank said Boris Collardi would take over from current CEO Johannes de Gier.

Collardi, a Swiss national born in 1974, worked for Credit Suisse before joining the private wealth manager in 2006.

The previous CEO of Julius Baer, Alex Widmer, died suddenly in December 2008 at the age of 52, amid rumours that it was a suicide.

De Gier is set to continue in his role as Chairman of GAM Holding Ltd., the investment wing of the larger Julius Baer financial group.

Julius Baer has seen declining funds in its assets management division and has said it wants to focus more on private banking. At the end of 2008, Julius Baer said its total client assets amounted to CHF 338 billion (295 billion dollars).

Earlier this month, the bank appointed Venkatraman Anantha- Nageswaran as its new Chief Investment Officer.

Collardi takes over as Switzerland, along with some other European nations, prepares to relax its banking secrecy laws. (dpa)