Hans Ulrich Baumberger

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Hans Ulrich Baumberger (born April 7, 1932 in Herisau ) is a business economist and was an entrepreneur and Swiss economic politician ( FDP ).

Life

Hans Ulrich Baumberger was born in Herisau in 1932 and grew up there. He attended the canton school in St. Gallen and graduated with a commercial school-leaving certificate. Then followed the study of business administration at the University of St. Gallen (HSG, today University of St. Gallen ). From 1955 to 1963 he worked at the Institute for Business Administration at the HSG, where he received his doctorate in 1961.

Career

His entry into industry took place in 1964 at Suhner & Co AG in Herisau, where, as commercial director, he played a key role in the later merger with the similarly active company R. & E. Huber AG in Pfäffikon ZH . In the newly formed company Huber + Suhner AG he became head of the Herisau plant. He kept this position until 1980, after which he founded his own management consultancy office in Herisau.

Early on, he was politically active in the Liberal Party (FDP) of the canton of Appenzell AR , whose Presidium he took over. In 1971 he was elected to the Swiss National Council. From 1975 he changed to the Council of States as representative of the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden . In parliament he participated in several commissions that dealt with economic issues and the military, in particular as a leading economic politician in the energy sector and as an advocate of a strong army. He was active in the Swiss parliament until 1983.

In the Swiss economy, Baumberger was active in several industrial and service companies as a board member or as its president. He held his first board of directors mandates from 1980 at Hasler AG (later Ascom Holding AG) in Bern and SIG Holding AG in Neuhausen am Rheinfall (President from 1996 to 1998). Corresponding tasks followed at Swissair in Kloten (from 1986 to 1994), at Bank Vontobel in Zurich (from 1990) and at Helvetia Insurance in St. Gallen (President from 1996 to 2001).

In the course of his many years of work at Swissair and Hasler / Ascom, he was involved in difficult decisions. At Swissair, he saw the decline of this once proud national airline and its eventual dissolution. At Hasler Holding AG, as its Chairman of the Board of Directors, he recognized that this telecommunications sector, which had previously mainly focused on major Swiss customers, would get into difficulties due to the increasing liberalization of the markets. Together with the business expert Knut Bleicher from the HSG in St. Gallen, he introduced a modern divisional organization at Hasler. This served as preparation for the merger of several Swiss companies in the same industrial sector to form the newly formed company Ascom, in order to form an internationally viable, medium-sized Swiss company. The Hasler-Werke Foundation played a key role as the main shareholder of Hasler Holding AG with Baumberger as President of the Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1994. Baumberger became chairman of the board of directors of the new company Ascom and the Hasler-Werke foundation became its majority shareholder. In the course of time, however, it became apparent that the objectives could not be achieved. Ascom went through a pronounced shrinking process and is now mainly a niche provider for wireless, in-house communication solutions.

In contrast to this, the companies that Baumberger helped to look after - Bank Vontobel, Helvetia Insurance and the glass processing company forma vitrum in St. Gallen - developed positively. After he had been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the cooperative life insurer Patria in Basel , he achieved the merger with Helvetia in St. Gallen, which specializes in property insurance, initially through a strategic alliance in 1992 and then the formal merger in 1996. This resulted in a powerful all-line insurer. Baumberger was Chairman of the Board of Directors of forma vitrum Holding AG until 2004. As a subsidiary of Schott AG , Germany, this company has now become a major supplier of glass products for the pharmaceutical industry.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ascom Annual Report 1987/88, p. 3
  2. ^ Baumberger, Hans Ulrich (1932-). In: Database of the Swiss Elite in the 20th Century (French), accessed on January 16, 2016
  3. ^ Advisory activity of Prof. K. Bleicher, pp. 17/241
  4. ↑ Hasler Foundation: majority of shares in Ascom from 1987. ( Memento from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 24, 2020
  5. ↑ Müller, Giorgio V .: Ascom disappoints again. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 7, 2015
  6. ↑ Niederer, Erich: For people, companies and politics. Conversation with HU Baumberger Tagblatt online ( memento from September 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) from December 28, 2009
  7. ↑ Schott Switzerland , accessed on January 17, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Baumberger, Hans Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss manager
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Herisau