Benjamin Fink

Senior Risk Manager | Risk Analytics & Technology

> cogitator.about

My career has followed a consistent theme: closing the gap between risk methodology and its technical implementation. Starting in credit risk, I moved through quantitative and performance roles before taking ownership of my team's risk analytics tooling. More recently, I built an enterprise risk platform from the ground up - now handling daily monitoring across all risk dimensions.

This path was not planned. The technical skills I acquired out of necessity, finding that the most effective way to solve risk problems was often to build the solution myself.

I work across French, English, and German, having spent my career between Monaco, Zurich, and Basel.

Outside of work, I attend to other machine spirits - mechanical keyboards, PC hardware, and terminal configurations that demand constant appeasement.

> cogitator.skills

Risk & Regulation

Market Risk Liquidity Risk Credit Risk Counterparty Risk ESG

Quantitative

VaR/CVaR Monte Carlo Stress Testing Backtesting Attribution Time Series Analysis Factor Models

Data & Coding

Python R SQL ETL Pipelines API Integration Data Modeling

Platforms

Bloomberg PORT/PORT+ MSCI RiskMetrics & ESG SimCorp Dimension Axioma

DevOps

Docker Kubernetes OpenShift Jenkins Git Azure

> cogitator.experience

Senior Risk Manager, Deputy CRO

Baloise Asset Management · Basel

Risk Management

May 2023 - Present
  • Initiated and led creation of unified risk infrastructure and comprehensive investment risk framework for traditional assets across funds, insurance funds, and mandates
  • Developed production-grade risk analytics platform (BAM ONE) transforming manual processes into automated dashboards, integrating data vendors
  • Implemented KPIs covering risk analytics (market, liquidity, credit, counterparty, and ESG risk)
  • Performed daily identification, analysis, and escalation of risk issues across all risk factors
  • Led investment risk dialogues with portfolio managers and established automated reporting workflows to senior management and regulatory authorities
  • Managed and mentored two junior risk analysts, coordinating work assignments, providing technical guidance, and ensuring quality of risk analysis deliverables
  • Introduced modern technology stack across business units with full DevOps ownership
  • Served as Deputy Chief Risk Officer ensuring risk infrastructure alignment with strategic objectives

Investment Risk Specialist

UBS Fund Management AG · Basel

ManCo Products

March 2019 - April 2023
  • Steered investment risk framework under regulatory requirements for UBS and White Labelling funds
  • Led software development of proprietary risk analytics and reporting solutions (web applications and tools)
  • Investigated VaR figures and large overnight changes, conducted stress testing and backtesting, evaluated economic exposures
  • Monitored fund's asset/liability liquidity risk and credit risks in securities lending and OTC transactions
  • Performed pre-launch fund risk assessments and escalated exceptions to portfolio managers and relevant governing bodies
  • Produced periodic investment risk reports for Executive Committee and Board of Directors
  • Deputized Investment Risk team lead and served as single point of contact for robotics and data science projects

Performance Analyst

Bank Julius Baer · Zürich

Performance Controlling & Risk Analytics

January 2018 - February 2019
  • Ensured GIPS compliance and handled performance measurement topics from all Bank areas and locations
  • Monitored and reviewed performance development of client accounts and identified performance outliers
  • Performed attribution analysis of equity/fixed income/multi-asset portfolios using factor-based risk models and total return attribution
  • Analyzed performance differences along the investment process through contribution and attribution analysis
  • Enhanced IT solutions for performance measurement and complex risk-return analysis across the Bank

Quantitative Analyst

Bank Julius Baer · Zürich

Risk Analytics

June 2017 - November 2017
  • Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) implementation - analyzed capital impact and evaluated vendor solutions for exotic derivatives
  • Led weekly investment controlling for actively managed certificates (AMC), including trader interaction and trade approvals
  • Participated in value at risk production and daily data checks
  • Additionally supported IRRBB initiative with deposit volume forecasting model

Risk Supervisor

Société Générale Private Banking · Monaco

Credit Methodology Lombard

January 2013 - August 2016
  • Designed credit risk framework for securities-backed lending in private banking
  • Evaluated lending values and margin requirements across equity, fixed income, and structured products
  • Built monitoring tools automating daily risk reports for front office and regulators
  • Developed custom controls for collateral coverage and concentration risks

> cogitator.projects

BAM ONE

Enterprise Risk Analytics Platform

2023-Present

Baloise Asset Management

Initiated and led development from concept to production, creating unified risk infrastructure that transformed manual processes into central analytics hub

Built cloud-native ecosystem: Python/Dash, Mage AI orchestration, MinIO data lake, PostgreSQL, Trino with Iceberg tables, integrated with SimCorp/Bloomberg/MSCI; full DevOps ownership (OpenShift, Jenkins/ArgoCD, Prometheus/Grafana)

> impact: FINMA praised as exemplary implementation; enabled shift from monthly to daily risk monitoring across all risk dimensions

Python Dash Mage AI MinIO PostgreSQL Trino Iceberg OpenShift Jenkins ArgoCD

Risk Cockpit

Investment Risk Monitoring Platform

2019-2023

UBS Fund Management

Led development as sole technical owner and lead software developer, modernizing from local R Shiny instances to centralized web application

Built complete data ecosystem: automated pipelines from multiple sources, SQLite backend, threshold monitoring with alerting; extended with Python while maintaining R core

> impact: Standardized risk reporting across team, supporting regulatory requirements for UBS and White Labelling funds

R Shiny Python SQLite

Structured Products Risk Approximation Model

ML-based Regulatory Risk Scoring

2018

Bank Julius Baer

Co-developed ML prototype with external vendor for regulatory risk scoring of third-party structured products lacking pricing models

Implemented k-nearest neighbor algorithm using term sheet characteristics (underlying, maturity, barriers) with automated parsing and vendor API integration

> impact: Enabled regulatory compliance for previously unmeasurable products; prototype became foundation for production system

Python ML/KNN API Integration

FRTB Capital Charge Vendor Evaluation

Exotic Derivatives Analysis

2017

Bank Julius Baer

Led technical evaluation of MSCI RiskMetrics module for exotic derivatives capital charges under FRTB framework

Decomposed complex products using vendor's scripting language into component risks (FX, options, bonds); validated Monte Carlo valuations against front office models

> impact: Delivered buy/no-buy recommendation based on model accuracy, product coverage, and implementation complexity

MSCI RiskMetrics Monte Carlo Derivatives

Deposit Volume Forecasting Model (IRRBB)

Time Series Forecasting

2017

Bank Julius Baer

Implemented academic research for Banking Book Risk team to forecast deposit volumes under rate scenarios using R time series models (ARIMA/VAR)

> impact: Model adopted for internal reporting

R ARIMA VAR Time Series

> cogitator.education

Master of Science in Finance (MSc)

2016 - 2017

Research Track Quantitative Finance

Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University · Paris

Thesis: Agricultural Derivative Markets Integration: A Graph Theory Analysis

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)

2009 - 2013

Banking and Financial Markets

EDHEC Business School · Nice

Thesis: Credit Risk Calculation and Management

Professional Development

Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF)

In Progress · Expected June 2026