Brady Dougan spent 25 years at Credit Suisse applying his much-admired intelligence to problems throughout the bank and carving a fan base big enough to make the quietly spoken American its first non-Swiss chief executive.
On the day that his resignation was announced, his lasting mark on Switzerland's second-biggest lender, for most commentators, came down to one thing - his enduring support of Credit Suisse's investment bank.
"That's the principal legacy, that he kept Credit Suisse as a stronger investment bank and fixed income player for longer than Switzerland's appetite," said Kinner Lakhani, an analyst at Citigroup.
"The new CEO doesn't have an investment banking background so we wouldn't expect any sacred cows, profitability will be looked at through a more stringent lens which takes into account the regulation today and regulation tomorrow."
That is a charge Mr Dougan would dispute. He and other executives at Credit Suisse frequently argue that the bank has taken more radical action on its investment banking arm than is widely acknowledged.
Yet the changes have come in several small steps that tested the patience of some investors - and the bank's numbers tell their own story.
Huw van Steenis, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said that even under Credit Suisse's latest shrinkage plan, it would still have the second-highest proportion of leveraged capital dedicated to investment banking of any European bank by 2017.
"One of the issues that Credit Suisse leaves unresolved is how to tackle the leverage debate," said Mr Van Steenis. "It has announced it's going to go on a significant diet to shrink leverage by over a fifth this year, even after that diet it would still be 60 per cent weighted towards investment banking."
Mr Dougan took charge of Credit Suisse in 2007, and spent the bulk of his tenure dealing with the financial crisis and its aftermath - a period Mr Dougan says was so challenging it should be counted in "dog years".
Inside Credit Suisse, Mr Dougan's intellect was prized. "He was always the smartest guy in the room, at meetings and calls he was the one who asked the right questions, he came up with the right points to the discussions," said one former colleague.
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But Mr Dougan's glass-half-full attitude was less universally prized. "His optimism with regard to our business model, how well positioned the bank was, it sometimes contrasted with the share price and with commentators and the media, and sometimes people thought it was a bit of a pain," said the former colleague.Most observers agree that the down-to-earth Midwesterner did a good job of steering the bank through the acute phase of the crisis. "If you look at the share price, it's clear they had a very strong 2009: they came through the crisis much better than many of their rivals," said Andreas Venditti, an analyst at Bank Vontobel.
"But after that they made some mistakes. They thought that they would continue picking up business from struggling rivals and invested heavily and hired a lot of people, but this didn't really happen and they were slow to react when it didn't."
Chris Wheeler, of Atlantic Equities, sees a similar development. "I think he's done a very decent job. He saw Credit Suisse through the crisis well, dealt with the regulators, and raised capital when he had to. But with the wave of regulation after the crisis, the world changed, and he probably wasn't aggressive enough in cutting back at the investment bank."
As well as the debate over Credit Suisse's investment bank, Mr Dougan's tenure was marked by a gruelling five-year battle to resolve allegations that Credit Suisse helped US citizens evade taxes, a spat that culminated in May last year in a $2.6bn settlement with American authorities.
In the run-up to that fine, Mr Dougan faced calls to stand down from Swiss politicians who said that the bank needed a new start.
However, Mr Dougan, famous for his ferocious work ethic, resisted the pressure and insisted that he would stay to push the business forward, a project that has occupied him until now.
"He was so determined to prove that it would work, the whole business model," said the former colleague.
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