Born in Geneva in 1970 to English-speaking parents, Karen Guinand-Gerard grew up in a fully bilingual English/French environment. After a scientific “maturité” at Collège Rousseau, she read economics at the University of Cambridge (England), where she obtained a BA degree in 1991, then followed on with a MA degree in economics & finance at the University of Geneva in 1993. Her higher education was later completed by the Chartered Financial Analyst certification in 1998.

Karen began her professional life as an auditor with Arthur Andersen before joining Lombard Odier & Cie in 1994. In nearly 20 years of working for this large Geneva private bank, whose partners promoted her to Executive Vice-President in 2009, she was able to significantly develop her skills in economic and financial analysis as well as investment strategy. She also held leadership (heading the equity analyst team in 2009-2010) and project management (COO of investment services for private clients in 2010-2012) positions.

Drafting and coordinating publications was always an important part of her various roles at Lombard Odier & Cie. Her writing skills and ability to render complex economic and financial topics both accessible and interesting to readers were widely acknowledged.

In 2014, Karen decided to develop this activity on a freelance basis, which then led her to set up finexpression in May 2015. Since then, she has been providing services, on a regular or one-time basis, to several banks and asset management companies in Geneva and Zurich. 

Outside of the workplace, Karen is mother to three teenagers and was elected Vice Mayor of the Genthod municipality in March 2020, for a five-year term beginning in June 2020. She previously sat on the local council for three years and headed the parents’ association of the Genthod primary school from 2014 to 2018.