The new President of Switzerland’s largest industry association is a highly professional entrepreneur with extensive management experience in the MEM industries.
After training as a materials engineer at ETH Zurich, Hans Hess began his career as a development engineer at Sulzer AG in 1981. He assumed his first management position when he transferred to Huber+Suhner AG in Pfäffikon (Canton of Zurich) in 1983. Having gained an MBA at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, he joined what was then Wild Heerbrugg as Senior Vice President and Head of a Business Unit in 1989. He was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Leica Group in 1993 and from 1996 to 2005 was CEO of the independent, Heerbrugg-based Leica Geosystems AG, which he successfully floated on the stock market in 2000.
At the end of 2005, Hans Hess resigned from his duties at Leica Geosystems after the company was taken over by Hexagon and founded Hanesco AG in Pfäffikon (Canton of Schwyz). He has been a member of the Board of Directors of several industrial companies since 2006, specifically: Burckhardt Compression Holding AG, Winterthur, (Board Chairman since 2006); Comet Holding AG, Flamatt (Board Chairman since 2007); Reichle & deMassari Holding AG (Board Chairman since 2007); Geberit AG, Jona and Schaffner AG, Luterbach. Hans Hess has also been a member of the ETH Board and Chairman of the Advisory Board of WTT CHost since 2007.
Hans Hess has been closely associated with Swissmem for over 11 years, and was elected to the association’s Committee in 1999 and its Executive Committee in 2004. He became Vice-President in 2007 and was Swissmem's representative on the Executive Committee of the Swiss Employers’ Association from 2007 to 2010. Furthermore, he has been a member of economiesuisse’s Executive Committee since 2009.
About Swissmem:
Swissmem unites around 1,000 companies employing 330,000 employees from Switzerland's mechanical and electrical engineering industries (MEM industries). As such it is the largest industry association in Switzerland. Swissmem is an independent and incisive voice that represents the interests of Swiss industry in economic, political and public debates. In this way, it strengthens Switzerland's ability to compete at international level as a location for industry and research. Swissmem identifies the concerns of its member companies, encourages active networking within the association and provides efficient services tailored to their needs. The Association of Swiss Engineering Employers (ASM), which is organized under the Swissmem umbrella, is also a partner in the most significant collective employment agreement within the industry.
You will find a photo of Hans Hess at www.swissmem.ch/media.
Zurich, 18 November 2010
For further information, please contact:
Ivo Zimmermann, Member of Swissmem Management
and Head of Communications
Tel. +41 (0)44 384 48 50 / mobile: +41 (0)79 580 04 84
E-mail: i.zimmermannnoSpam@swissmem.ch