Carl Elsener senior
Carl Elsener senior (also Charles Elsener , born July 6, 1922 in Ibach ; † June 1, 2013 in Schwyz ) was a Swiss entrepreneur .
Life
Carl Elsener was the grandson of Karl Elsener (1860-1918) and the son of Carl Elsener (1886-1950). In 1884, Karl Elsener opened a factory for the manufacture of knives and surgical instruments in Ibach , from which the Victorinox knife factory developed.
Carl Elsener initially ran the company together with his father and brother Eduard Elsener (* 1926). After the death of his father in 1950, he took over the management of the company. The Swiss Army Knife (Swiss Army Knife) is considered his work.
The knife factory became the largest company in the canton of Schwyz under the management of Carl Elsener senior. In 1938 Elsener joined the company, which at the time had 80 employees. When he died there were well over a thousand. Elsener is described as a boss who was still able to operate almost all of the machines in the company himself, was out and about in a «Lismerli» or in a blue professional coat , and who rode his bike to the factory. He never owned a car. A few years before his death, he still felt fit enough to work an 80-hour week.
In October 2000, Elsner founded the Victorinox Foundation together with his brother Eduard Elsener and his son Carl Elsener junior as a successor solution in order to ensure the continued existence and prosperity of the company. The foundation holds 75 percent of the shares in Victorinox AG, another 15 percent belong to the charitable Carl u. Elise Elsener-Gut Foundation . The Elsener family still own 10 percent of the shares.
After Carl Elsener senior, his son Carl Elsener junior (* 1958) has been running the company since 2007.
Awards
- 2011: Blade magazine's Cutlery Hall of Fame Award .
literature
- Heidy Gasser : Victorinox - the knife makers from Ibach , 3rd volume in the book series «Central Switzerland on the way to today», Verlag der Albert Koechlin Foundation, 2009, ISBN 978-3-905446-07-4 .
- James Shotter: Cutler who gave the Swiss army knife its edge. Obituary in: Financial Times, June 7, 2013 (registration required).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Entry in moneyhouse.ch , accessed on June 6, 2013.
- ↑ Carl Elsener Sr. died , article in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung Online from June 3, 2013.
- ↑ Victorinox senior boss has died , article in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung from June 4, 2013.
- ↑ Entry Victorinox Foundation on moneyhouse.ch, accessed on June 7, 2013.
- ↑ Foundation: Sustainable Stability ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Article in No. 11 of the Swissconsultants.ch series: Successful Succession , p. 14.
- ↑ carl elsener jr speaks for the cutlery hall of fame award , video 5:20 min. On Youtube.
- ^ Cover text of the book ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Elsener, Carl senior |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elsener, Charles |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 6, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ibach |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st June 2013 |
| Place of death | Schwyz |