Board of Directors

The duties and responsibilities of the Board of Directors of Georg Fischer AG are defined by the Swiss Code of Obligations, the Articles of Association and the Corporation's organizational and company regulations. In accordance with the new statutory provisions which came into force on 1 January 2014 and updated on April 2024, the term of office of a member of the Board of Directors lasts until the next Annual Shareholders’ Meeting has been concluded and is thus limited to one year. As of 18 April 2024, the Board of Directors is composed of 8 members.

Committees

Audit Committee

Compensation Committee 

Nomination and Sustainability Committee

Audit Committee

Compensation Committee 

Nomination and Sustainability Committee
Stefan Räbsamen, Chairman Eveline Saupper, Chairwoman  Yves Serra, Chairman
Peter Hackel
 Annika Paasikivi Stefan Räbsamen
Monica de Virgiliis Michelle Wen Ayano Senaha
Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2023 - GF Verwaltungsrat Yves Serra 2023

Yves Serra

Chairman of the Board of Directors
1953 (France and Switzerland)

Engineering degree from École Centrale de Paris (France); MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA)

Board Member since 2019, Vice Chairman 2019–2020, Chairman since 2020

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Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member
  • Board meeting attendance in 2023: 8/8 (attendance rate: 100%)
  • Committee meeting attendance in 2023: Nomination and Sustainability Committee: 7/7 (attendance rate: 100%)

Professional background, career

Deputy Commercial Attaché at the French Embassy in Manila (Philippines) (1977–1979); Customer Service Engineer for Alstom in France and South Africa (1979–1982); various positions at Sulzer in France and Japan (1982–1992); various positions at GF (1992–2019), Managing Director of Charmilles Technologies Japan and Regional Head of Sales Asia (1992–1998), Head of Charmilles (1998–2003), Head of GF Piping Systems (2003–2008), President and CEO of Georg Fischer Ltd (2008–2019)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

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Further professional activities and functions

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stäubli Holding AG; member of the Board of BNP Paribas Switzerland; member of the Board of SMG (Schweizerische Management Gesellschaft) until end of February 2024 (all Switzerland); Advisor Sustainability Committee of Recruit Holdings and of Asset Management One, Tokyo (both Japan)

Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2023 - GF Verwaltungsrat Eveline Saupper 2023

Eveline Saupper

Vice Chairwoman and Independent Lead Director
1958 (Switzerland)

Dr. iur, attorney and certified Tax Expert, graduated in Law at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)

Board Member since 2015, Vice Chairwoman since 2024

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Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member
  • Board meeting attendance in 2023: 8/8 (attendance rate: 100%)
  • Committee meeting attendance in 2023: Compensation Committee: 4/4 (attendance rate: 100%)

Professional background, career

Legal and Tax Advisor at Peat Marwick Mitchell (now KPMG Fides) (1983–1985); Attorney at Baker & McKenzie (1985–1992); Employee (1992–1994), Partner (1994–2014) and of counsel at Homburger AG (2014–2017)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

Member of the Board of Directors of Flughafen Zurich AG (until April 2023), Clariant AG and Forbo Holding AG (all Switzerland)

Further professional activities and functions

Member of the Board of Directors of Stäubli Holding AG; member of the Board of Trustees of UZH Foundation; member of the Board of Directors of Tourismus Savognin Bivio Albula AG; Chairwoman of Mentex Holding AG; member of the Board of Trustees of Foundation Piz Mitgel Val Surses (all Switzerland)

Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2023 - GF Verwaltungsrat Peter Hackel 2023

Peter Hackel

Member of the Board of Directors
1969 (Switzerland)

Dr. sc. nat. ETH; Master and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich (Switzerland); degree in Business Administration at the Open University of Hagen (Germany)

Board Member since 2020

More Information

Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member
  • Board meeting attendance in 2023: 8/8 (attendance rate: 100%)
  • Committee meeting attendance in 2023: Audit Committee: 4/4 (attendance rate: 100%)

Professional background, career

Various management positions at McKinsey and Geistlich Biomaterials (Switzerland); various management positions at Straumann AG, ultimately as Head of Group Controlling and member of Executive Management Group Straumann AG (2004–2011); CFO of the global segment Oerlikon Drive Systems (2011–2013); CFO of Straumann Group (2014–2022)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

CFO of Syntegon (since 2023)

Further professional activities and functions

Board member of the Association of Swiss CFOs (Switzerland)

Annika Paasikivi 2024 Annika Paasikivi 2024

Annika Paasikivi

Member of the Board of Directors
1975 (Finland)

Bachelor’s degree from the European Business School London and a Master’s degree from the University of Southampton (both in England)

Board member since 2024

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Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member

Professional background, career

COO of Friitala Fashion (2009–2010); Integration Manager at Oras Group (2013–2015); COO of Oras Invest (2011–2018); member of the Board of Directors of Uponor Corporation (2014–2023) and its Chairwoman (2018–2023)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

President and CEO of Oras Invest Oy and CEO of Finow Oy; member of the Board of Directors and Vice Chair of Kemira Oyj; member of the Board of Directors of Valmet Oyj (all Finland)

Further professional activities and functions

Member of the Supervisory Board of the Finnish Economic and Policy Forum EVA and the ETLA Economic Research Institute (since 2024) (Finland)

Stefan Räbsamen 2024 Stefan Räbsamen 2024

Stefan Räbsamen

Member of the Board of Directors
1965 (Switzerland)

Master’s degree in Economics and Administration from the University of Bern (Switzerland); Swiss certified public accountant

Board Member since 2024

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Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member

Professional background, career

1994–2024 PwC Switzerland, from 2002 as Partner and following various management functions, as its Chairman (2019–2022). As part of his mandates for multinational companies, he was also Lead Auditor for GF (2012–2018)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

Member of the Supervisory Board of TAKKT AG (Germany) since 17 May 2024. In line with the standard two-year cooling-off period for auditing companies, he will take up his new position at GF at the beginning of July 2024

Further professional activities and functions

Member of the Foundation Board of stars – for Leaders of the Next Generation, Weinfelden and Board of Zürcher Handelskammer (both since 2019) (both Switzerland)

Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2023 - GF Verwaltungsrat Ayano Senaha 2023

Ayano Senaha

Member of the Board of Directors
1982 (Japan)

B.A. in Economics, at the Waseda University (Japan)

Board Member since 2022

More Information

Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member
  • Board meeting attendance in 2023: 8/8 (attendance rate: 100%)
  • Committee meeting attendance in 2023: Nomination and Sustainability Committee: 7/7 (attendance rate: 100%)

Professional background, career

Various management positions at Recruit Holdings and its group companies since 2006: Representative at Corporate Planning and Solution Sales (2006–2012); Director of Advantage Resourcing UK (2013–2015); Executive Manager at Recruit Holdings (2015–2018), located in Tokyo (Japan); Chief of Staff at Indeed Inc., Austin (USA) (2018–2019)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

Corporate Executive Officer at Recruit Holdings (since 2018); COO, Executive Vice President of the Executive Committee and member of the Board of Recruit Holdings; Board Director of Indeed Inc, (Austin US); Director of Glaasdoor Inc; Non-Executive Board of RGF Staffing B.V. Almere (Netherlands)

Further professional activities and functions

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Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2023 - GF Verwaltungsrat Monica de Virgiliis 2023

Monica de Virgiliis

Member of the Board of Directors
1967 (Italy and France)

Masters in Electronics Engineering: Politecnico di Torino (Italy)

Board member since 2023

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Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member
  • Board meeting attendance in 2023 (since April 2023): 6/6 (attendance rate: 100%)
  • Committee meeting attendance in 2023: Audit Committee (since April 2023): 3/4 (attendance rate: 100%)

Professional background, career

1993–1996 Manufacturing Engineer at Magneti Marelli Electronics Division (Italy); 1996–2001 Program Manager at the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) (France); 2001–2015 several executive roles at STMicroelectronics (Switzerland), since 2005 as Vice President and including General Manager of the Wireless Multimedia Division (2007–2010) and ultimately as Vice President Corporate Strategy & Development (2013–2015); 2015–2016 Vice President & General Manager Industrial Microcontrollers at Infineon Technologies (Germany); 2017–2019 Chief Strategy Officer of the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Paris (France)

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of SNAM (Italy); member of the Board of Directors of Air Liquide (France) and member of the Supervisory Board of ASM International (Netherlands) (until May 2024)

Further professional activities and functions

Co-founder and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Chapter Zero France, the French branch of the Climate Governance Initiative built on the World Economic Forum’s Principles for Effective Climate Governance

Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2023 - GF Verwaltungsrat Michelle Wen 2023

Michelle Wen

Member of the Board of Directors
1965 (France)

B.A. in International Business from American Christ’s College in Taipei (Taiwan); Economics & Accounting at the London School of Economics (UK); MBA from ESCP-EAP in Paris (France); Executive Management at INSEAD (France) and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (USA)

Board member since 2023

More Information

Corporate Governance

  • Membership: Independent member
  • Board meeting attendance in 2023 (since April 2023): 6/6 (attendance rate: 100%)
  • Committee meeting attendance in 2023: Compensation Committee (since April 2023): 2/4 (attendance rate: 100%)

Professional background, career

1993–1997 several management positions at Thomson Multimedia (France and USA); 1997–2000 at Philips (now Continental AG) (Germany and France), ultimately as Senior Alliance Manager; 2000–2008 at Renault-Nissan (France), ultimately as Senior Global Supplier Account Manager for Vehicle Body Purchasing; 2008–2012 Vice President of Sourcing & Supplier Quality Development at Alstom Transport; 2012–2016 Group Sourcing & Procurement Vice President at Vallourec (France); 2016–2017 Group Supply Chain Management Technology Director & Board member at Vodafone (Luxembourg); 2017–2022 several Executive Board positions at Opel Vauxhall (also Board member in 2018/2019), PSA&Stellantis Group (Germany, France and Netherlands), ultimately as member of the Executive Committee Group of Opel Vauxhall, PSA and Stellantis as Chief Global Purchasing & Supplier Quality Officer

Current professional activities and involvement in governing bodies of other listed corporations

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Further professional activities and functions

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