Credit Suisse just hired a rising star to advise its CEO on strategy

Credit Suisse's new CEO, Tidjane Thiam, has hired an investment banker as a senior adviser ahead of an expected restructuring of the bank.

Adam Gishen, who was most recently a partner at the City of London advisory boutique Ondra Partners, has joined the Swiss bank as a senior adviser to the CEO.

Gishen, 40, who earlier in his career was included on a list of rising stars in European finance, previously specialized in advising financial institutions.

At Ondra he worked with Prudential, the insurance giant Thiam led before moving to Credit Suisse.

Thiam took over as CEO this summer, succeeding American Brady Dougan. He is expected to refocus the bank and prioritize its most profitable units. The bank is planning to give an update on its strategy on October 21.

The Swiss bank, which has a large investment-banking and asset-management operation in the US, reported solid second-quarter profits of 1.1 billion Swiss francs.

Thiam took the opportunity to signal a shift to Asia Pacific, mentioning the region in four of the first five sentences in his results comments and nine times in a letter to shareholders signed by Thiam and chairman Urs Rohner.