Bernard Sabrier is Vice Chairman of Sagard, Chairman of Sagard MENA and Sagard Private Equity Solutions (“SPES”), a leading mid-market private equity platform that is part of the Sagard Group, as well as Chairman of Unigestion Holding One and U Wealth. Mr Sabrier took control of his father’s boutique investment firm, Unigestion, at age 23 in 1976. Over five decades, he has built one of Europe’s leading independent alternative asset managers, defined by contrarian conviction, structural innovation, and a rare integration of investment leadership with philanthropy.
Mr Sabrier began his career in finance in 1972 at Paribas Geneva, followed by Renault Finance in fixed income and FX. In the mid-1980s, he pioneered European hedge fund investing, always committing his own capital first. In 1988, he began investing in private equity on a proprietary basis, initially through direct investments and subsequently through fund commitments. A landmark transaction came between 1988 and 1992 when he acquired a controlling stake in Banca della Svizzera Italiana and exited to Swiss Bank Corporation. In 1997, he established one of Europe’s first private equity fund-of-funds vehicles. In 2025, Unigestion announced the merger of its private equity platform with Sagard, creating a global mid-market private equity leader; Mr Sabrier is Chairman of the combined entity and Vice Chairman of Sagard’s Board.
Mr Sabrier is President of the Famsa Foundation, a Swiss charitable foundation he established in 2011 as Unigestion’s controlling shareholder, which is now a significant Sagard shareholder. He is also President of Children Action, a foundation he established in 1994 for disadvantaged children globally. He is the Co-founder of MAMCO – the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Geneva – the largest contemporary art museum in Switzerland.
