Management

Honorary Chairman of the Board

Schaan, Liechtenstein

Michael Hilti (born 1946) was elected Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors at the 2018 Annual General Meeting and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1990. The son of company founder Professor Martin Hilti joined Hilti in 1975, one year later he was named to the company’s Executive Board. He served as Deputy CEO from 1978. In 1990 he was named CEO, a position he held until the end of 1993. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1994 to 2006. Michael Hilti further serves as a Trustee of the Martin Hilti Family Trust, as Chairman of the Hilti Art Foundation, as Chairman of the Hilti Family Foundation Liechtenstein, and as a member of the Board of the Hilti Foundation. He has held numerous directorships, including being named a Princely Commerce Councilor by H.S.H. Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, and was also awarded the title Honorary Senator by the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland).

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Rüschlikon, Switzerland

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. Fischer graduated in 1973 with an engineering diploma from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where he 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. Beginning in 1977, he held senior management positions at Oerlikon Bührle Holding, Balzers AG (1980 to 1989) and, finally, at 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 and Sensirion AG.

Zurich, Switzerland

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. 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 in the production area. Before being named Chairman he served as CEO for 13 years. Since April 2017 he has been Speaker of the Martin Hilti Family Trust. He is a member of Board of Directors of the Schindler Group, Hergiswil (Switzerland), and President of the ETH Zurich Foundation.

Zurich, Switzerland

Daniel Daeniker (born 1963, elected until the 2021 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2018. Daniel Daeniker is Managing Partner of Homburger AG, a commercial law firm in Zurich. He also holds a board mandate with dormakaba Holding AG (Switzerland), is a member of the Supervisory Board of Rothschild & Co SCA (France) and a lecturer at the University of Zurich.

Sønderborg, Denmark

Kim Fausing (born 1964; re-elected until the 2022 Annual General Meeting) was elected to the Board of Directors in 2010. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Aarhus Teknikum, in Denmark, in 1987, and an MBA degree at Henley Business School, in London, in 1996. His professional career led him to the Hilti Group in 1990, where he served in various management functions in Europe and Asia until 2007. After moving to the Danish Danfoss Group, he was named Chief Operating Officer and member of the executive committee in January 2008. He has chaired since July 2017 as President and CEO. He also is Vice Chairman of SMA A/G, in Kassel, Germany, and member of the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim, Switzerland.

Erembodegem, Belgium

Carla De Geyseleer (elected until the 2022 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2019. Since October 2019 she has been Chief Financial Officer of Volvo Car Group (Sweden). She previously served for several years as CFO for SGS in Geneva (Switzerland) and for both the mobile operator Vodafone’s subsidiary, Vodafone Libertel B.V. and for the logistics company DHL Express Benelux, both located in the Netherlands. Before that, she served in multiple finance and business development roles on a regional and global level at DHL. Carla De Geyseleer also holds an Executive MBA from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Chur, Switzerland

Marco Meyrat (born 1963, elected until the 2023 Annual General Meeting) joined the Board of Directors in 2020. Since January 1, 2020 he has been Chairman of the Hilti Foundation Board. From 2005 to 2019 he was a member of the Hilti Group Executive Board. Marco Meyrat began his career at Hilti in 1989 as a Product Manager in the Direct Fastening unit at Corporate Headquarters in Liechtenstein. Significant positions held during his Hilti career include General Manager of both the Swiss and German  marketing organizations. In 2005 he joined the company’s Executive Board and was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing. Starting in 2017 he was responsible for the North America region and the Emerging Markets. Marco Meyrat is also a member of the Advisory Board of Ardex GmbH, Witten (Germany); Deputy Chairman of Board of Directors of  OLMeRO AG, Glattbrugg (Switzerland); and Deputy Chairman of Board of Directors of Venture Incubator AG, Zug (Switzerland).

Oslo, Norway

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). Barbara Milian Thoralfsson has held CEO positions in the telecom and consumer goods sectors, and has extensive experience as a non-executive director, in 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 in Sweden. She also serves on the board of G4S Plc in London.