All six existing members of the Board of Directors of the Zehnder Group will stand for re-election at the Annual General Meeting on 28 March 2019, with Thomas Benz putting his name forward for the final time. In the interests of anticipatory succession planning, the Board of Directors has carefully deliberated the future composition of the company’s top governing body.

Two additional members of the Board of Directors

In its meeting on 22 February 2019, the Board of Directors of the Zehnder Group decided to propose the election of Ivo Wechsler as member of the Board of Directors alongside Daniel Frutig at the Annual General Meeting on 28 March 2019.

Ivo Wechsler (born in 1969, Swiss citizen) has extensive experience in management, especially in the finance sector in publicly traded companies. From 2001 to 2007, he ran the Corporate Controlling and from 2005 in addition the Treasury department of Ascom, the Swiss consortium of telecommunications equipment. He was the Head of Corporate Controlling at
HUBER+SUHNER, a Swiss company that operates worldwide and specialises in components and system solutions for electrical and optical connector technology, from 2008 to 2010. He has been CFO of HUBER+SUHNER since April 2010.

Proposal to appoint PwC as auditor

In the interests of pursuing good corporate governance practices and with a view to the upcoming change in the lead auditor, 2019 saw the Zehnder Group put the role of its auditor out for tender. Following careful consideration, the Board of Directors acted on the Audit Committee’s advice to propose a change in the auditor at the Annual General Meeting on 28 March 2019. Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) is to replace KPMG, which has acted as the Zehnder Group’s auditor since 1984.

The Board of Directors would like to thank KPMG for their many years of excellent service.

Media Release 3/2019