Industrial Executive & Non-Executive Board Moves in Switzerland

Industrial Executive Moves

ABB

• ABB announced that Sami Atiya, President of the Robotics & Discrete Automation business area and member of the Executive Committee, will leave the company by the end of 2026 following the planned divestment of the Robotics division to SoftBank Group.

• Christian Nilsson has been appointed Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Committee, effective 1 February 2026, succeeding Timo Ihamuotila, who will step down from the committee at that time and leave ABB at the end of 2026 after ensuring a smooth transition. Nilsson, currently CFO of ABB’s Electrification business area, brings extensive international finance experience from previous senior roles at DSM-Firmenich, TE Connectivity, and GE.

• Jörg de Graaf joined ABB E-mobility as Chief Financial Officer on 1 November 2025, succeeding CEO Michael Halbherr, who has been serving as both CEO and interim CFO. De Graaf leaves his position as CFO at CM.com to take up the dedicated CFO role at ABB’s EV charging business.

Adecco

• Adecco has appointed Valentina Ficaio as its new Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Committee, effective 1 January 2026, succeeding Coram Williams, who is stepping down to become CFO of an automotive company in Germany. Ficaio, currently Group Senior Vice President of Finance, has held several senior finance roles within Adecco since joining in 2019.

Alpiq

• Alpiq has announced a leadership change as Lukas Gresnigt, Head of International, will leave the company at the end of 2025 to become CEO of EPEX SPOT, the European short-term power exchange based in Paris.

Also Holding

• Also Holding has streamlined its Group Management Board from eight to four members, enabling faster, more flexible responses to market and customer demands. CEO Wolfgang Krainz, CFO Andreas Kuhn, and COO Thomas Meyerhans will continue in their current roles, while Jan Bogdanovich assumes new responsibilities as CTO, focusing on areas such as cybersecurity and gaming. Former CTO Ingo Adolphs becomes CIO, and Jorge Gállego, as well as Espen Zachariassen, are leaving the Group Management Board. Tom Brunner, formerly Head of Consumer Business and the only Swiss board member, will leave the company after ten years by mutual agreement.

Amcor

• Amcor has appointed Stephen R. Scherger as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective 10 November 2025, succeeding Michael Casamento, who will return to Australia to be closer to his family and will remain with the company as an advisor until 30 June 2026.

Aryzta

• Aryzta’s CEO, Michael Schai, has resigned, effective October 2025, following a joint decision with the Board that a leadership change was in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders. Chairman Urs Jordi, who previously held the dual role from 2020 to 2024, has assumed interim CEO responsibilities to ensure the consistent implementation of the group’s strategy and to restore business momentum.

Ascom

• Ascom has appointed David Hale as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective 4 February 2026. Hale, an executive with more than 25 years of international leadership experience in the technology and industrial sectors, including five years as CEO of the Guerbet Group and senior roles at General Electric, will succeed Michael Reitermann, who has been serving as interim CEO; Reitermann will step down from the interim role and remain an ordinary member of the Board of Directors.

Bachem

• Bachem has appointed Anne-Kathrin Stoller as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 January 2026, succeeding Thomas Meier, who will leave the company after more than 30 years, including nearly six as CEO, to pursue a new opportunity outside the group. Stoller, currently Head of Bachem Americas and formerly Chief Marketing Officer, brings deep expertise in business development, sales, and customer relations, as well as a strong scientific background with a PhD in bioorganic chemistry.

Beyond Gravity

• Beyond Gravity is streamlining its Executive Board from six members to three as part of an organisational realignment. The new leadership team will consist of CEO André Wall, CFO Angelo Quabba, and Oliver Grassmann, who has taken on the role of Chief Operating Officer. At the same time, Chief People Officer Laura-Katrin Seitz is leaving the company, and a phased workforce reduction across 2026 has been announced as part of the broader restructuring.

Clariant

• Marcelo Lu will join the company in January 2026 as President Designate of Care Chemicals & Americas and become a member of the Executive Steering Committee, succeeding Christian Vang, who is retiring in 2026.

• Priya Thaman has been confirmed as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Clariant, transitioning from Interim CHRO (ad interim since June 2025) to the permanent role as of December 2025. She brings 20+ years of international HR leadership and deep expertise in talent, culture and organisational transformation, built across roles at GE Capital, InterGlobe, and most recently Perfetti Van Melle, before joining Clariant in 2022.

Coop

• Coop’s Board of Directors has appointed Daniel Hintermann as the new Head of the Trading Division, effective 1 June 2026, succeeding long-time deputy CEO Daniel Stucker, who will transition to strategic projects until his retirement in April 2027. Hintermann, currently Head of Logistics & Production, brings extensive retail and project leadership experience, including major initiatives like the Schafisheim logistics site expansion, and will also serve as Deputy Chair of the Executive Board. His previous role will be taken over by Philipp Wegmüller, a seasoned logistics expert who has driven Coop’s rail freight expansion as head of Railcare, reinforcing continuity and support for the company’s trading formats.

Cremo

• Ralph Perroud, CEO of Swiss dairy processor Cremo, has resigned with immediate effect after results and outlook for the current financial year fell short of expectations, the Board announced. He will be succeeded on an interim basis by Xavier Monange, Cremo’s Director of Transformation and Governance, who has been appointed CEO ad interim to steer the company’s leadership and turnaround efforts.

DKSH

• Patrik Grande has been appointed Head of Business Unit Healthcare at DKSH and will join the company’s Executive Committee, effective January 2026; he will report to CEO Stefan P. Butz as part of DKSH’s global leadership team. He succeeds Bijay Singh, who will begin his retirement on 31 March 2026 after eleven years with the company. Grande, currently Vice President, Commercial Outsourcing & Cluster Head APAC, brings over 20 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical industry and has driven growth and strategic development in DKSH’s regional healthcare business since joining in 2022.

EKZ

• Dirk Mulzer has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich (EKZ), succeeding Urs Rengel, who will retire in 2026 after 26 years with the company, including 22 as CEO. Mulzer will take up the role on 1 October 2026, bringing extensive energy sector experience from his current position as Chief Operating Officer, Deputy CEO and Head of Corporate Development at Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB).

Endress+Hauser

• Endress+Hauser has restructured its Executive Board as part of a generational change and strategic realignment of responsibilities. The Supervisory Board has appointed three new members to the group’s top management: Dr. Mirko Lehmann as Chief Technology Officer, Prof. Dr. Katja Windt as Chief Operating Officer and Helena Svensson as Chief Human Resources Officer. These changes support the planned retirements of current COO Dr. Andreas Mayr and CIO Pieter de Koning in 2026 and realign the Executive Board for a sharper focus on innovation, production, and people strategy.

Energie 360°

• Jörg Wild has resigned as CEO of Energie 360° with immediate effect after it became public that he had applied for the CEO position at the Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich (EKZ), a potential buyer of Energie 360°, creating concerns about a conflict of interest during the ongoing sale process. Wild’s deputy and head of the Solutions division, Romeo Deplazes, who has been with Energie 360° for many years and served as Deputy CEO and Solutions Division Leader, has taken over as interim CEO to ensure continuity and objectivity in leadership.

Erne Bauunternehmung

• Maximilian Nägele has been appointed Managing Director of Erne and joins the Group Executive Board of the Erne Group. Previously serving as Head of the Structural Engineering Division and Deputy Managing Director since early 2024, Nägele has already worked closely with Group CEO Giuseppe Santagada.

Franke

• Corrado Mura has been appointed Head of the Franke Home Solutions division and will join the Group Management Board of the Franke Group, effective 1 January 2026. He succeeds Barbara Borra, who is retiring after seven years leading the division, and brings extensive international leadership experience from his current role as Vice President for the EMEA region at Franke Home Solutions.

Galenica

• Barbara Wälchli, who currently serves as General Counsel and Secretary General, has decided to leave the company at the end of 2025 to pursue a new professional challenge, prompting an internal succession. Cécile Matter took over as General Counsel effective 1 November 2025 and will join the extended Executive Committee, bringing nearly six years of in-house legal experience and broad expertise from her previous roles at commercial law firms. Matter’s appointment follows Wälchli’s departure and is part of an internal leadership transition that also sees Jürg Pauli named Secretary General of the Board of Directors.

Garrett Motion

• Garrett Motion announced the planned retirement of Jerome Maironi, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, effective 31 March 2026. Maironi will step down from his current positions on 1 October 2025 and remain with the company to ensure a smooth transition.

Groupe E

• The Swiss energy provider has abruptly ended its collaboration with Chief Financial Officer Willy Zeller, who had served as Director Finance and IT since 2009, the company announced on 22 December 2025. Groupe E said the move is aimed at improving efficiency and better aligning financial and IT functions with the group’s operational goals. Until a successor is appointed, Christophe Grandjean will take over the finance role on an interim basis, and a recruitment process for a permanent replacement is underway.

• Groupe E has appointed Philippe Curty as General Director of the Technical and Infrastructure Directorate (DTI), a role he has held on an interim basis since April 2025 before being definitively confirmed by the Board. Johann Ruffieux has been named as the permanent Head of the Direktion elektrische Energie (DEL), the division responsible for its electrical energy business, after he had been leading the unit on an interim basis since 23 May 2025.

Gunvor

• Torbjörn Törnqvist, long-time CEO and co-founder of Gunvor, has stepped down after 25 years and sold his majority stake in the company to a group of current employees in a management-led buy-out. He is succeeded by Gary Pedersen, who joined Gunvor in 2024 as Head of Americas and now takes global leadership as the company transitions to employee ownership and a refreshed governance structure. The move ends Törnqvist’s tenure and marks a strategic reset designed to support Gunvor’s long-term growth and diversification, with no representatives of the Törnqvist family remaining on the board or executive committee following the change.

Hochdorf

• Hochdorf has appointed Sandro Tichelli as its new CEO, effective 1 January 2026, succeeding Ralph Siegl, who led the company through its spin-off and sale to AS Equity Partners. Tichelli brings extensive senior leadership experience in the international food industry, most recently as Country Manager of Danone Switzerland and member of the Danone DACH executive team, positioning him to drive Hochdorf’s growth and strengthen its global market presence. Oliver Banz, Partner and Head of Portfolio Management at AS Equity Partners, will lead Hochdorf on an interim basis until Tichelli assumes the role.

Inficon

• Inficon has announced a planned Chief Financial Officer transition: Dimitrij Lisak, currently Corporate Head of Finance & Controlling, will succeed Matthias Tröndle as CFO and join the Group Management, effective 1 July 2026. Lisak joined the company in January 2025 and brings strong financial leadership experience from previous senior roles at Hilti to the CFO position as part of the company’s long-term succession planning. Tröndle, who has served as CFO since 2008, will step down on 30 June 2026 and retire after supporting the handover period.

IVF Hartmann

• Claus Martini has stepped down as CEO of IVF Hartmann after ten years in the role, with his departure effective at the end of 2025 by mutual agreement. Martini will focus on strategic tasks and board mandates, and the company has initiated a formal succession process. Martin Walther, a member of the Board of Directors, will take over operational leadership as interim CEO from 1 January 2026 while a permanent successor is being sought.

Leclanché

• Leclanché has announced a Chief Financial Officer transition: Hubert Angleys has left his role as CFO and stepped down from the Executive Committee at the end of his temporary assignment on 30 November 2025. The company is in the final stages of selecting a new CFO.

Medartis

• Medartis has appointed Dr. Peter Hackel as its new Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Management Board, effective 1 January 2026, succeeding Dr. Dirk Kirsten, who has served as CFO since 2021 and will leave the company after a transition period. Hackel brings extensive financial leadership experience from multinational companies across technology and healthcare sectors and joins at a strategic time as Medartis builds on recent acquisitions in arthroplasty and value implants.

Mobilezone

• Lars Keller has started as Chief Operating Officer of Mobilezone, taking up the role in November 2025. He brings extensive Swiss telecom and sales leadership experience, having previously served as Chief Sales Officer at Salt Mobile and in senior sales roles at Mobilezone and other companies. Keller’s appointment adds operational leadership to Mobilezone’s executive team as the group focuses on its Swiss market and strategic priorities.

Montana Aerospace

• Effective 1 January 2026, following its repositioning as a pure-play aerospace group after divesting the E-Mobility (November 2024) and Energy (September 2025) segments, Montana Aerospace will move to a single-CEO structure, appointing Kai Arndt as CEO and Patrick Maurer as CFO. Arndt brings deep Aerostructures operational and aerospace programme leadership, having served as Co-CEO and led the Aerostructures segment that is now at the core of the Group’s strategy. Maurer contributes segment-level CFO expertise and continuity, having been with the Group since August 2022 as CFO of Aerostructures, while former Co-CEO/CFO Michael Pistauer will focus fully on his Board role to support the company’s long-term strategic development.

OC Oerlikon

• Marco Freidl will become Chief Financial Officer of OC Oerlikon, effective 1 November 2025, taking over from Markus Richter, who is leaving the company. Freidl, currently Head of Group Strategy, Business Development and M&A, brings strong experience in corporate finance and capital markets. He will also join Oerlikon’s Executive Committee as part of this transition.

• Georg Stausberg, who serves as CEO of Oerlikon Barmag, will leave his role in 2025 as part of the planned divestment of the Barmag business to Rieter, a transaction of CHF 713 million expected to complete in Q4 2025. Stausberg has also held roles within the OC Oerlikon organisation, including Chief Sustainability Officer, and will step down from Oerlikon’s Executive Committee in connection with the sale and transition of Barmag to its new owner.

Partners Group

• Partners Group has appointed Nicholas Smith Wang as Partner and Co-Head of its Private Equity Technology Vertical, effective November 2025. He will co-lead the global technology practice alongside Wolf Scheider, focusing on new investments and value creation initiatives across the software and digital sectors. Smith Wang joins from Warburg Pincus, where he spent 14 years as Managing Director and Partner specializing in technology investments.

• Partners Group has also announced a series of Executive Committee changes effective 1 January 2026, subject to FINMA approval: Ana Campos, Head of Human Resources, and Anette Waygood, who will become Co-Head of Compliance & Legal and Deputy General Counsel, are joining the leadership team. Sarah Brewer, Head of Client Solutions, and Andreas Knecht, Group General Counsel, will step down from the Executive Committee but remain in senior roles within the firm. In addition, Juri Jenkner, President and Executive Committee member, will take on responsibility for Client Solutions, which will be renamed Business Development going forward.

Pistor

• The foodservice and bakery supplier Pistor has appointed Silvan Odermatt as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective 1 January 2026. Currently Group CFO at Hapimag, Odermatt brings extensive financial expertise and will contribute to driving Pistor’s continued development as a member of the Executive Board. He succeeds Peter Steinmann, who is stepping down from the Executive Board at the end of 2025 after more than 30 years with the company, 12 of them as CFO, and will continue to lead strategic projects to ensure a smooth transition.

Primeo Energie

• Primeo Energie has appointed Benoît Doin as Head of the Energy Solutions segment and a member of the Executive Management, effective early 2026, succeeding Cédric Christmann, who had served in the role on an interim basis since January 2025. Doin, who has been with Primeo Energie France SAS since 2019 and has served as its Chairman of the Board since 2023, brings additional international energy sector experience from senior roles at EDF and ENEL.

Rieter

• Rieter has announced a new group structure effective 1 January 2026 in connection with its planned acquisition of the Barmag division from OC Oerlikon. Under the restructuring, the Machines & Systems and After-Sales divisions will be merged, Alexander Özbahadir will lead the new Short-Staple Fiber division, Roger Albrecht will head the Components & Technology division, and Georg Stausberg will continue as Head of the Man-Made Fiber division and join the Group Executive Committee once the acquisition closes. Long-time executive Serge Entleitner will step down from the committee at the end of 2025.

Schindler

• Hugo Martinho has stepped down from the Group Executive Committee of Schindler, where he was responsible for Human Resources, effective 20 November 2025, to pursue career opportunities outside the company. His departure creates a vacancy in the Executive Committee’s HR leadership, and Schindler has said that his successor will be announced in due course.

Selecta

• Roland Ludwig, Group Chief Technology Officer at Selecta, is leaving the company at the end of November 2025 as part of broader organisational changes under the new “Selecta 2.0” strategy. The Swiss vending and self-serve retail operator has also eliminated the Chief Commercial Officer role and seen long-serving commercial leader Jan Marck Vrijland depart in January 2026, contributing to an almost completely renewed leadership team. Recent appointments include CEO Venkie Shantaram, who took over in mid-October 2025, and a new CFO Jean-Noël Groleau, who joined three months earlier, as Selecta implements its turnaround and strategic restructuring.

Siegfried

• Siegfried has announced a planned transition in its finance leadership: Tania Micki will become Chief Financial Officer and join the company’s Executive Committee, effective 1 July 2026, succeeding Reto Suter, who has served as CFO since 2017 and will step down after nine years in the role. Micki joins Siegfried from Tecan, where she has been CFO since 2020, bringing more than 20 years of international finance leadership experience across listed companies and a strong track record in commercial and operational finance roles.

SIG

• SIG has appointed Mikko Keto as its new Chief Executive Officer, following a comprehensive global search by the Board of Directors and succeeding Anne Erkens, who has been serving as CEO ad interim during the search. Keto is expected to assume the role in the first half of 2026 at the company’s headquarters in Switzerland. Keto, a Finnish national, joins SIG from FLSmidth, where as Group CEO he led a major transformation, including financial and operational restructuring, portfolio optimisation and efficiency programmes that doubled the company’s value.

Sonova

• Roberto di Fiore has been appointed Group Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of Sonova, effective 4 December 2025, succeeding Ludger Althoff, who is retiring. Di Fiore joins Sonova with over 25 years of international operations leadership experience in the hearing care and technology sectors, having previously held senior roles including COO and President APAC at WSAudiology, as well as leadership positions at Sivantos and Elica Group.

Swatch Group

• Swatch brand CEO Alain Villard has temporarily stepped down to take a one-year sabbatical for personal reasons, a decision mutually agreed upon earlier this year to allow for a well-planned transition. Effective 1 October 2025, Vivian Stauffer, previously head of the Hamilton brand, has assumed leadership of Swatch. Stauffer, who began his career with the Biel-based watch group in 2002 and successfully led Hamilton’s global development, brings extensive brand management experience and international market expertise to Swatch.

Swissgrid

• Swissgrid has appointed Daniel Brand as the new Head of the Grid Infrastructure business unit and a member of the Executive Board, effective 1 July 2026. In this role, Brand will be responsible for strategic planning, maintenance and modernisation of the Swiss transmission network, succeeding Adrian Häsler, who will leave Swissgrid at the end of March 2026 after announcing his departure earlier in 2025. Brand joins Swissgrid’s leadership from his current role as Head of Network Operations and member of the Executive Board at BKW Power Grid, where he has overseen strategic direction and operational execution of the distribution network and high-voltage services.

Temenos

• Panagiotis “Takis” Spiliopoulos, previously Chief Financial Officer of Temenos, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. He steps into the role after serving as Interim CEO since September 2025 following the sudden departure of former CEO Jean-Pierre Brulard.

u-blox

• u-blox has been acquired by US private equity group Advent International through its European subsidiary ZI. As part of the transition, current CEO Stephan Zizala will step down at the end of 2025. The company will transition to a co-leadership model, with Camila Japur (CFO) and Andreas Thiel (Head of Business Units and Co-Founder) both assuming the roles of Co-CEOs. Zizala is expected to join u-blox’s future Board of Directors, ensuring continuity and strategic oversight during the company’s next phase of development.

• Matthias Poppel has been appointed Chief Growth Officer and member of the Executive Committee, effective 27 November 2025, succeeding Helen Xu, who is leaving to pursue new opportunities. Poppel brings more than 25 years of international experience in the semiconductor, IoT and embedded systems industries, including leadership roles at Swissbit, Texas Instruments and other technology firms, and will help drive u-blox’s global growth strategy.

University of Zurich

• Thomas Sutter, Chief Information Officer of the University of Zurich (UZH), will step down at the end of April 2026 after 11 years in the role and will become Managing Director of the Switch Foundation in May 2026. Since leading the newly established Central IT office from 2014, Sutter has been instrumental in driving UZH’s digital transformation, strengthening IT security, and modernizing infrastructure, including initiatives such as the ScienceIT center, the UZH now app, and the rollout of Microsoft 365 during the pandemic.

Contact

Dominik Brülisauer
Russell Reynolds Associates
Stampfenbachstrasse 5 | 8001 Zurich | Switzerland
Direct: +41-44-447-30-46
Mobile: +41-79-549-80-28
dominik.bruelisauer@russellreynolds.com