The Hilti Board of Directors
The Board of Directors sets the framework and acts as guardian of the Group’s strategic direction, culture and senior management appointments and supervises operational business. It consists of the Chairman and six members, as well as Michael Hilti as Honorary Chairman, who typically participates in the meetings. The sole shareholder, the Martin Hilti Family Trust, delegates up to three members to the Board but never assumes the majority nor the Chairman position. The majority of the Board members are independent directors external to the company.
Michael Hilti
Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors Schaan, Liechtenstein
Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors Schaan, Liechtenstein
Michael Hilti
Michael Hilti (born 1946) was elected Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors at the 2018 Annual General Meeting. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1990. The son of company founder Professor Martin Hilti, he joined the company in 1975 and was appointed to the Executive Board one year later. He served as Deputy CEO as of 1978. In 1990 he was named CEO, a position he held until the end of 1993. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1994 to 2006. Michael Hilti is also Trustee of the Martin Hilti Family Trust, Chairman of the Hilti Art Foundation, Chairman of the Hilti Family Foundation Liechtenstein, and a member of the Board of the Hilti Foundation. He has held numerous directorships and was also named a Princely Commerce Councilor by His Serene Highness Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. Michael Hilti has also been awarded the title Honorary Senator by both the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and the University of Liechtenstein.
Heinrich Fischer
Chairman of the Board of Directors Rüschlikon, Switzerland
Chairman of the Board of Directors Rüschlikon, Switzerland
Heinrich Fischer
Heinrich Fischer (born 1950; re-elected until the 2022 Annual General Meeting) is Chairman of the Board of Directors. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2007. Heinrich Fischer graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in 1973 with an engineering diploma, having studied electrical engineering and technical physics. He then went on to study business administration at the University of Zurich while working in this field, earning a master’s degree in 1976. From 1977 onward, he held senior management positions at Oerlikon Holding, Balzers AG (1980 to 1989), and then Oerlikon Holding once again (1990 to 1995). From 1996 to 2007, he was Chief Executive Officer at Saurer AG, Arbon. Heinrich Fischer is a member of the Board of Directors of Tecan AG, Sensirion AG and Chairman of Oro de Cacao AG (all Switzerland).
Prof. Dr. Pius Baschera
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Pius Baschera
Pius Baschera (born 1950; re-elected to serve until the 2022 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2006. He served as its Chairman until April 2017 when he ceded this position to Heinrich Fischer. Pius Baschera studied mechanical engineering and business administration at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, where he earned his doctorate. In 1979, he joined Hilti as Head of Financial Controlling for production. Before being appointed Chairman, he served as Chief Executive Officer for 13 years. Since April 2017, he has been Speaker of the Martin Hilti Family Trust and continues to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Hilti Corporation. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Schindler Group, Hergiswil (Switzerland) and President of the ETH Zurich Foundation.
Daniel Daeniker
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Daniel Daeniker
Daniel Daeniker (born 1963; elected until the 2024 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2018. Daniel Daeniker is Senior Partner of Homburger AG, a business law firm in Zurich, where he joined as a trainee in 1988 and was made partner in 2000. His practice focuses on mergers & acquisitions, corporate governance, equity capital markets and financial services regulation. He studied at the University of Zurich (Dr. iur. 1992) and at the University of Chicago (LL.M. 1996). Daniel Daeniker also holds a board mandate with dormakaba Holding AG (Switzerland), where he chairs the audit committee, is a member of the Supervisory Board of Rothschild & Co SCA (France), a lecturer at the University of Zurich and the President of the donor foundation of Avenir Suisse, Switzerland's leading free-market think tank.
Kim Fausing
Sønderborg, Denmark
Sønderborg, Denmark
Kim Fausing
Kim Fausing (born 1964; re-elected until the 2022 Annual General Meeting) was elected to the Board of Directors in 2010. He has been President and Chief Executive Officer for the Danfoss Group (Denmark) since July 2017. Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Executive Committee starting in January 2008. Before this, from 1990 until joining Danfoss, he held various international positions within the Hilti Group in Europe and Asia. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Aarhus Teknikum, Denmark, and an MBA from Henley Business School (UK). Kim Fausing is also Vice Chairman of SMA AG, Kassel (Germany), and a member of the Board of Directors of Holcim (Switzerland).
Carla De Geyseleer
Erembodegem, Belgium
Erembodegem, Belgium
Carla De Geyseleer
Carla De Geyseleer (born 1968; elected until the 2022 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2019. Until recently, she was Chief Financial Officer of Volvo Car Group (Sweden). She previously served for several years as Chief Financial Officer for SGS in Geneva (Switzerland), for mobile operator Vodafone’s subsidiary, Vodafone Libertel B.V., and for the logistics company DHL Express Benelux. Before that, she served in multiple regional and global roles in finance and business development at DHL. She started her career as an auditor at EY in Brussels (Belgium). She holds a board mandate at Polestar Automotive Holding Ltd (UK) and is a member of the Advisory Board of Geneva School of Economics and Management. Carla De Geyseleer also holds an Executive MBA from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne (Switzerland).
Marco Meyrat
Chur, Switzerland
Chur, Switzerland
Marco Meyrat
Marco Meyrat (born 1963; elected until the 2023 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2020. Since January 1, 2020, he has served as a Trustee of the Martin Hilti Family Trust and as Chairman of the Hilti Foundation. From 2005 to 2019, he was a member of the Hilti Group Executive Board, being responsible for global sales and marketing. Marco Meyrat began his career at Hilti in 1989 as a Product Manager in the Direct Fastening unit at corporate headquarters in Liechtenstein prior to assuming different roles in marketing, sales and general management in France, Switzerland and Germany. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Ardex GmbH, Witten (Germany) and member of the Board of Directors of the Hälg Group, St. Gallen (Switzerland) and OLMeRO AG, Glattbrugg (Switzerland). He is also the Chairman of Venture Incubator AG, Zug (Switzerland), a member of the Foundation Board of the Cantonal Hospital Grisons (Switzerland) and Trustee of the Toni Hilti Family Trusteeship (Liechtenstein).
Barbara Milian Thoralfsson
Oslo, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Barbara Milian Thoralfsson
Barbara Milian Thoralfsson (born 1959; re-elected until the 2023 Annual General Meeting) was elected to the Board of Directors in September 2014. She has an MBA in marketing and finance from Columbia University in New York (USA) and a BA in psychology from Duke University in North Carolina (USA). She has held Chief Executive Officer positions in the telecom and consumer goods sectors and has extensive experience as a non-executive director of both public and privately held multinational companies in a wide variety of industries. Since 2006, she has been an entrepreneur in the industrial sector, building the largest plastic recycling company in Scandinavia. She is a member of the Board and Chairwoman of the Audit Committee of SCA AB and Essity AB (Sweden). She is Chairwoman of Exclusive Networks SA in France.