Zena Couppey and Christian Hertz (Altum): A people business

Zena Couppey, Chief Executive Officer and Christian Hertz, Head of AIFM at Altum Group explain how people, technology and Luxembourg fuel the group’s growth. Interview.

Luxembourg is our growth engine. It is our fastest growing office.

Zena, can you tell me how you are a disruptor?

For me, disruption is about challenging the established way of doing business and having the confidence to find a better way. We are hugely ambitious, but as we’ve grown, we have not lost sight of what sits at the heart of our business, our people. When I joined six years ago, we were 35 people in one office. We are now approaching 250 people, and trebled our assets under administration. We did that through a disciplined approach to M&A and the exceptional people we attract and retain. We invested early on into our tech stack, and leverage automation, AI and data to deliver insights that bring real competitive advantage to our clients. Through our all-staff equity, everyone has the potential to have real skin in the game and share in the success that we are co-creating. Even our brand has become bolder, we’re constantly asking how we can raise the bar rather than simply follow what the industry has always done.

Christian, you have a long career in Luxembourg in well established firms. Why did you choose Altum?

What attracted me was that growth has never come before quality. Altum are ambitious and agile and being a small and newer player in Luxembourg is one of the ultimate advantages. Our industry is consolidating, there is real value in having a service provider that knows your business, stays close to you and can respond quickly and in a personal manner. Altum brings significant pedigree, experience and an international network that gives us reach well beyond Luxembourg. That was a big part of the attraction for me: the opportunity to use our network to bring new relationships and business into Luxembourg, particularly from US managers and family offices looking to Europe. With our strong Anglo-Saxon influence, we are opening the gateway to Europe for US managers.

Zena, how do you see Luxembourg in your global strategy?

Luxembourg is a key growth engine for us and our fastest-growing office. We’ve doubled our headcount and are about to double our office space. But Luxembourg’s importance goes beyond scale. As the world’s second-largest fund domicile, and a market at the forefront of areas such as tokenisation and distribution, Luxembourg is an important part of how we support global managers across jurisdictions.