Mario Corti (manager)

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Mario Arnold Corti (born October 22, 1946 in Lausanne ) is a Swiss manager . He was the last Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SAirGroup .

Life

Corti grew up in Kirchberg near Bern, studied in Lausanne, was an officer in the Swiss Army, later worked in the aluminum industry in California and completed a second degree at Harvard University . Back in Switzerland, he then worked for the Swiss National Bank and the Federal Office for Foreign Trade before joining Nestlé as Director General and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) . During this time he was already a member of the SAirGroup Board of Directors. After CEO Philippe Bruggisser was dismissed without notice by the Chairman of the Board of Directors Eric Honegger in January 2001 and the entire Board of Directors resigned in March 2001, he was offered the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO ad interim .

His first task was to shed light on the opaque financial interdependencies of the group and to determine the extent of the financial imbalance. In April 2001 he had to announce an annual result with a loss of 2.9 billion Swiss francs - that included almost 2.5 billion in provisions for the exit from the numerous ruinous holdings in airlines. Shortly afterwards, he presented a comprehensive restructuring plan: he was able to agree with Belgium and France on an exit and initiated an earnings improvement program that should save 500 million francs annually. In addition, a task force was set up to work out synergies between Swissair and Crossair . At the end of August 2001, he announced the half-year figures in which all investments were fully consolidated for the first time. Corti decided to sell the group companies Nuance (Tax Free Shops) and Swissport (Ground Services) in order to strengthen the massively shrunk equity capital again. In addition, 1000 jobs should be cut. Thanks to these measures and sales, funds of around CHF 4.5 billion should have been released. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the USA thwarted efforts to restore the country. The planned sales of assets were impossible because they had become almost worthless overnight. The collapse in demand plunged the entire aviation industry into the biggest crisis since its existence and the ailing SAirGroup into an acute liquidity crisis . Rescue scenarios were discussed with the two major Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse . On October 1, 2001, the sale of the Crossair stake to the big banks ( Plan Phoenix ) was announced in order to lay the foundation for a new national airline (see Swiss ). Swissair and parts of the SAirGroup which was moratorium requested.

Corti fell into the crossfire of criticism in the spring of 2002 when it became known that his five-year contract with Swissair had been endowed with a total of CHF 21,219,298 in advance. About half of this consisted of options that were now worthless and the purchase price for the takeover of his house in western Switzerland at the official market price.

From a criminal complaint for damage to creditors, multiple unfaithful business management, multiple false statements about commercial trade, mismanagement , creditor preference and multiple completed attempts to do so in connection with his role as the last head of Swissair, Corti was in the first instance of the Bülach District Court on June 7, 2007 like all of them 18 other defendants in the so-called “Swissair criminal proceedings ” were fully acquitted. He received litigation compensation of 488,681 francs initially, and in 2008 it was increased to 558,425 francs. The prosecution did not advance the verdict. The Canton of Neuchâtel , the Belgian State and two controlled by the Belgian State companies that Société Fédérale de Participations et d'Investissement and the Société Anonyme Zephyr-Fin , appealed against the acquittal of Mario Corti on two counts appeal a. The higher court of the Canton of Zurich acquitted Corti in June 2008. The plaintiffs in the appeal proceedings have to pay Corti legal fees for the second case of 123,686 francs and to cover the court costs of 15,000 francs.

Mario Corti moved to Boston in 2002 . There he was elected to the advisory board of Harvard Business School , where he did his MBA in 1975 . Corti has had a license to control scheduled aircraft since 2004, and a license as a flight instructor was added later. Today (2011) Corti lives with his wife alternately in Boston and Savannah (Georgia) and works as a flight instructor.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Meier: Arbitrary severance payments ( memento from July 24, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) in: Tages-Anzeiger from March 30, 2006
  2. ↑ All defendants acquitted ( memento of October 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in: Tages-Anzeiger of June 7, 2007
  3. ↑ a b Expected acquittal for Mario Corti in: NZZ Online from June 20, 2008
  4. ↑ The public prosecutor's office no longer adopts the SAirGroup rulings in: NZZ Online from 7 September 2007
  5. ↑ Corti's new appearance in court ( memento from September 27, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) in: Tages-Anzeiger from June 13, 2008
  6. ↑ Constantin Seibt : The last captain. In: Tages-Anzeiger from October 1, 2011
  7. ^ Swissair: The Grounding of Managers. In: Bilanz 17/2011 of 23 September 2011, pp. 54/57

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Corti, Mario
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Corti, Mario Arnold (full name); Corti, Mario A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss manager
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Lausanne