Board of Directors

Dr. Ulrich Vischer held various top posts in the BASLER insurance group up until 1992. From 1992 to 2005 he was a member of the cantonal government and Head of the Finance Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Since his withdrawal from the cantonal government he has practiced as a partner in a law firm operating in Basel, Zurich and Geneva. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Warteck Invest AG and Chairman of the Sophie and Carl Binding Foundation. From 2005 to 2019, he was Chairman of the Basel University Board.

* 1992 to 2005 member of the Board of Directors as a delegate of the Canton of Basel-Stadt

Christoph Brutschin has been a member of the cantonal government and Head of the Economic, Social Affairs and Environment Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt since 2009. He studied business administration in Zurich, and also economics and the teaching of economics in Fribourg, before taking up employment with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and maxit AG. Prior to his election onto the executive of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, he worked at Basel Commercial College – as a teacher and lecturer as of 1991 and then as the principal from 1996 onwards.

Markus Breitenmoser has been active internationally for more than 30 years as a board member, manager and consultant in various industries, including the financial industry, working especially in the field of corporate restructuring and repositioning. He holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen. Among other things, he is the founder and a partner and Board member of consultancy firm Breitenmoser & Partner GmbH in Rapperswil-Jona and innovation research company Alpora AG in Zug and also chairman of the Board of Central American forestry company, Novelteak AG.

Dr. Eva Herzog was a member of the cantonal government and Head of the Finance Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt from 2005 to 31 January 2020. Before she was elected onto the executive of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, Dr. Herzog, who gained her doctorate in history, was on the academic staff of the Research Vice-Rectorate at the University of Basel, and was also a member of the parliament and constitutional council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. In 2019, she was elected to the Council of States of the Swiss Federal Assembly as a representative of the Canton of Basel-Stadt.

Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard has more than 30 years' experience in managerial posts in the luxury and consumer goods industry as well as in the specialist retail trade. He has worked for various companies – including the LVMH Group – in Asia, for Georg Jensen Ltd. in Copenhagen and for the Timex Group in Connecticut in the USA. From 2011 to 2017 he was CEO of Oettinger Davidoff AG in Basel. Since 2018, he has managed his own consultancy firm and is CEO and a mentor at Mentore Consulting in London. In 2018-2019 he was interim CEO of MCH Group Ltd. He is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Nomination & Compensation Committee of Calida AG in Sursee, as well as a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of Barclays Bank (Suisse) SA in Geneva.

Dr. iur. Balz Hösly is a lawyer and partner at MME Legal | Tax | Compliance in Zurich and Zug. He is an experienced Board of Directors’ practitioner in matters of governance and also development and change management for private and public companies. Balz Hösly has previously worked in senior positions in different companies, including Winterthur Versicherungen and CS, and also as CEO of the Swiss export promotion organisation Osec (now Switzerland – Global Enterprise). He is a lecturer at the Institute of Financial Services in Zug, the ZfU Business School in Thalwil and the University of St. Gallen. He is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater Zurich Area AG and the AG Hallenstadion Zürich as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Showwerk AG in Aegeri and Bombardier Transportation (Schweiz) AG in Zurich.

Dr. Dagmar Maria Kamber Borens is a doctor of law and a financial specialist. She worked for almost 18 years in different managerial posts for UBS AG in Zurich, London and Singapore and, from 2012 to 2016, was Group CFO for the Asia-Pacific region in Singapore. Following this, she was Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Swiss Universal Bank and Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd. until October 2018, where she was responsible inter alia for the segments of strategy, digitisation, IT, operations and bank products as well as marketing and sponsoring. Since 1 September 2019, she has been the designated CEO of Quintet Private Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. in Zurich.

Dr. Karin Lenzlinger Diedenhofen holds a doctorate in economics (Universities of Boston and St. Gallen). After pursuing different teaching and research activities at the start of the 1990s, she became a member of the Board of Directors and Business Unit Head at Lenzlinger Söhne AG, Uster/Nänikon. From 2000 to 2019 she was a delegate of the company’s Board of Directors and also ran the company as CEO until 2015. She is Vice-Chairwoman of the Swiss Parquet Industry Association and a delegate at “bauenschweiz”, the umbrella organisation of the Swiss building industries. She is additionally Chairwoman of the Zurich Chamber of Commerce, a Board member at economiesuisse and NGO B-Lab, Geneva, and also Chairwoman of the Board of ZO Medien AG, Wetzikon. She is similarly Vice-Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of SV Group AG, Dübendorf, and a member of the Board of Directors of Bank Linth LLB AG, Uznach.

Dr. André Odermatt has been Head of the City of Zurich's Building Department since 2010. He was a member of the Zurich City parliament from 1995 to 2010 and its chairman in 1999/2000. Dr. André Odermatt studied geography at the University of Zurich and gained his PhD in 1996. He has held teaching posts at different school levels, was on the scientific staff at the University of Zurich and, prior to his election to the City Council, was ad interim Head of the Chair of Economic Geography. He is a board member of "Regional Planning for Zurich and the Surrounding Area" (RZU), a member of the Board of Directors of the AG Hallenstadion and of AKEB Aktiengesellschaft für Kernenergie-Beteiligungen Luzern (until 18.06.2019) and a member of the Foundation Council of the Eleonoren Foundation.

Thomas Weber was elected to the Basel-Landschaft cantonal government in 2013, where he is Head of the Economic Affairs and Health Department. With a degree in construction engineering from the Swiss Institute of Federal Technology (ETH), he worked for different engineering and construction companies before being elected a member of the cantonal government. From 2002 to 2006, he worked in the Basel-Landschaft Civil Engineering Department and from 2007 to 2013 he was at the Federal Roads Office with responsibility for the main-road infrastructure in central and northwest Switzerland. Thomas Weber represents the Canton of Basel-Landschaft on the Board of Directors of the Swiss Rhine Ports.

After studying sociology and marketing at the University of Zurich, Andreas Widmer worked in market research for two years before joining the Wunderman marketing agency in 1993. In 1996, he founded Futurecom interactive AG then, in 2003, took over the management of Wunderman and, in 2007, the management of Advico Young & Rubicam. Together with other business units, he merged these companies to form the Young & Rubicam Group Switzerland in 2008, and was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the group until 30.09.2017. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors at Vintra AG and a member of the Board at Walde & Partner and the Brino Group AG. He is also a founder and partner of Westhive AG.