Organisation
Caption: Simplified presentation of the group structure of Bâloise Holding AG.
Caption: Organisation chart of Baloise Group.
Corporate Executive Committee
President of the Corporate Executive Committee of the Baloise Group (Group CEO)
Gert De Winter (1966, Belgium, MSc) studied applied economics at the University of Antwerp. From 1988 to 2004, he performed various roles at Accenture in Brussels for issues relating to IT and business transformation management in the financial sector. He was made a partner at the firm in the year 2000. In 2005, he joined the Baloise Group as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Head of HR of the Mercator insurance company in Belgium. From 2009 to 2015, Gert De Winter was Chief Executive Officer of Baloise Insurance, which was formed in 2011 from the merger of the three insurance companies Mercator, Nateus and Avéro. He has been Group Chief Executive Officer since 1 January 2016. Since June 2016, he has been a member of the Management Board of the Basel Chamber of Commerce.
Chief IT Officer (CTO)
Alexander Bockelmann (1974) has a PhD in geosciences. After studying in Germany and the UK, he completed his doctorate at the University of Tübingen’s faculty of geosciences. Dr Bockelmann is a proven expert in digitalisation and transformation, and has many years of experience in the industry. He previously worked as an IT strategy and transformation consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and in various senior roles at Allianz SE in Germany and the USA. At the end of 2013, he moved to UNIQA Insurance Group AG in Austria in the role of Group CIO and ultimately became Chief Digital Officer on the Management Board. He has headed up the Group IT corporate division since February 2019.
Head of Corporate Division Asset Management
Matthias Henny (1971, Switzerland, Dr phil.) completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in physics at the University of Basel. From 1998 to 2003, he was employed at McKinsey & Co., before switching to what was then the Winterthur Group, where he was Head of Financial Engineering in Asset Management until 2007. Subsequently, he was a member of the management team at AXA Winterthur, first as CIO (until 2010), then as CFO. In 2012, Dr Matthias Henny joined the Baloise Group. As CEO of Baloise Asset Management AG he was responsible for the administration of approximately CHF 50 billion in assets. Dr Matthias Henny became a member of the Corporate Executive Committee in May 2017. He manages the Corporate Division Asset Management with its units Investment Strategy and Investment Controlling, Sales and Marketing, Portfolio Management, Operations, Real Estate, Corporate Development and Compliance.
CEO Basler Switzerland
Michael Müller (1971, Switzerland, lic. oec. publ.) graduated in economics from the University of Zurich, specialising in insurance and accounting / finance. He began his career with Basler Versicherungen in 1997, starting as a management trainee, then working in Group Finance and eventually becoming Deputy Head and, in 2004, Head of Financial Accounting for the Baloise Group. In 2009, as Head of Finance and Risk, he became a member of the senior management team in Corporate Division Switzerland. He has been a member of the Corporate Executive Committee and CEO of Corporate Division Switzerland since March 2011, and as such has headed up the insurance and banking business in Switzerland. Michael Müller is Vice President of the Swiss Insurance Association (SVV) and a member of the Board of Foundation of Stiftung Finanzplatz Basel and the Executive Board of the Association of Basel Insurance Companies. He also sits on the board of the Promotion Society of the Institute of Insurance Economics at the University of St. Gallen.
Head of Corporate Center
Thomas Sieber (1965, Switzerland, Dr iur., M.B.L., lawyer, SDM mediator) studied law at the University of St. Gallen. At the beginning of 1994, he qualified to practise as a lawyer in the Swiss canton of Zurich. From 1999 to 2002, he lectured in corporate law at the University of St. Gallen. After brief spells working at Landis & Gyr and Siemens he joined the Baloise Group in 1997 as Deputy Head of Legal and Tax. He became Head of this division in 2001 and, in addition, was secretary to Bâloise Holding’s Board of Directors until April 2012. Since 6 December 2007, Dr Thomas Sieber has been a member of the Corporate Executive Committee and, as Head of the Corporate Centre, is responsible for Group Strategy and Digital Transformation, M & A, Group Human Resources, Legal and Tax, Group Compliance, Run-Off Business and Group Procurement. Dr Thomas Sieber serves on the panel of experts for the SWIPRA Foundation and until the end of March 2018 sat on the Board of Directors at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg.
Head of Finance (CFO)
Carsten Stolz (1968, Germany / Switzerland, Dr rer. pol.) studied business economics at Fribourg University where he also gained a doctorate specialising in financial management. After that he spent four years as an advisor for the Financial Services practice unit at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Zurich and Geneva, before joining the Baloise Group as Head of Financial Relations in 2002. From 2009 to 2011, Dr Carsten Stolz was the Baloise Group’s Head of Financial Accounting & Corporate Finance. Between 2011 and 2017 he was Head of Finance and Risk, and thus a member of the Executive Committee, at Basler Versicherungen, Switzerland. Dr Carsten Stolz became a member of the Corporate Executive Committee in May 2017. He manages the Corporate Division Finance with its departments Group Accounting & Reporting, Financial Planning & Analysis, Group Risk Management, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations and as well as the appointed actuary for Swiss business at Baloise and the Head of Regulatory Affairs. Dr Carsten Stolz is a member of the Finance and Regulation Committee of the Swiss Insurance Association (SVV).
Board of Directors
Andreas Burckhardt (1951, Switzerland, Dr iur., lawyer) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1999 and its Chairman since 29 April 2011. He studied jurisprudence at the universities of Basel and Geneva. He worked in the legal department of Fides Treuhandgesellschaft from 1982 to 1987 and served as Secretary General of the Baloise Group from 1988 to 1994. He was director and head of the Basel Chamber of Commerce from 1994 to April 2011. In this role he sat on various governing bodies of national and regional business organisations. From 1981 to 2011 he performed various political functions in the Basel civic municipality and in the canton of Basel-Stadt, and from 1997 to 2011 he served on the Great Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt (as Chairman in 2006 and 2007). Dr Andreas Burckhardt is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of economiesuisse and sits on the Executive Board of the Employers’ Federation for Basel. Dr Andreas Burckhardt performs a non-executive function as Chairman of Baloise’s Board of Directors.
Andreas Beerli (1951, Switzerland, Dr iur.) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2011. He studied law at the University of Basel. In 1979, he started working as an underwriter for the German market at Swiss Re. From 1985 to 1993, he performed various managerial roles at Baloise, with the main focus on supervising and supporting several foreign units. He then returned to Swiss Re, where he became a member of the Group Executive Committee in 2000, first in the United States as Head of Swiss Re Americas and, most recently, in Zurich as Chief Operating Officer for the entire Swiss Re Group. Since 2009, he has acted as an independent advisor on the boards of directors and advisory boards of companies and professional associations. He is a member of the Board of Directors at Ironshore Europe Inc., Dublin, and a member of the Advisory Board of Accenture Schweiz. Dr Andreas Beerli is an independent non-executive director.
Christoph B. Gloor (1966, Switzerland, degree in business economics HWV) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2014. He is the Deputy Head of Wealth Management at Bank Vontobel AG in Zurich. Before becoming a member of the Executive Committee and CEO of Notenstein La Roche Privatbank AG, St. Gallen, he was Chief Executive Officer of Basel-based private bank La Roche & Co AG. Prior to joining La Roche & Co AG in 1998, he worked for Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) before moving to Vitra (International). Christoph B. Gloor served as president of the Association of Swiss Private Banks from November 2013 to February 2015 and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Bankers Association from September 2013 to February 2015. He has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors of the Basel Banking Association since 2016. Christoph B. Gloor is an independent non-executive director.
Hugo Lasat (1964, Belgium, Master in Economic Sciences, Master in Finance) has sat on of the Board of Directors since 2016. He has been CEO of Brussels-based Degroof Petercam Asset Management (formerly Petercam Institutional Asset Management) since 2011. His managerial roles prior to that include CEO of Amonis Pension Fund and CEO of Candriam Investors Group (previously known as Dexia Asset Management). He is a guest professor at KU Leuven (Brussels Campus) and VIVES University College and a member of the Financial Commission of the Belgian Red Cross. Hugo Lasat is an independent non-executive director.
Christoph Mäder (1959, Switzerland, lawyer) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2019. From 2000 to July 2018, he was member of the Executive Committee of Syngenta International AG, responsible for Legal Affairs and Taxes. He was member of the Executive Board of the Basel Chamber of Commerce until June 2018. Member of the Executive Board of scienceindustries from 2006 to May 2018, he was its Chairman from 2008 to 2014. Christoph Mäder sits on the Board of Directors of Lonza Group AG and on the Board of Directors of EMS Chemie Holding AG. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of economiesuisse. He is an independent non-executive director.
Markus R. Neuhaus (1958, Switzerland, Dr iur., Certified tax expert) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2019. He was Chief Executive Officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers AG for nine years before being appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors from July 2012 to June 2019. Markus R. Neuhaus is, i.a. Vice Chairman of Avenir Suisse, member of the Executive Board and the Finance and Tax Commission of economiesuisse, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of the Zurich Chamber of Commerce and member of the Executive Board of expertsuisse (formerly Swiss Institute of Certified Accountants and Tax Consultants). He is an independent non-executive director.
Thomas von Planta (1961, Switzerland, Dr iur., lawyer) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2017. He is the founder and managing director of CorFinAd AG, a company specialising in consultancy for M&A transactions and capital market finance. Until March 2019, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bellevue Group AG, Bank am Bellevue AG and Bellevue Asset Management AG. Previously, he had worked for Goldman Sachs in Zurich, Frankfurt and London for around ten years and had been the interim Head of Investment Banking and Head of Corporate Finance for the Vontobel Group in Zurich between 2002 and 2006. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of BB Biotech AG in March 2019. Dr Thomas von Planta is an independent non-executive director.
Thomas Pleines (1955, Germany, lawyer) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2012. From 2003 to 2005, he was CEO and delegate of the Board of Directors at Allianz Suisse, Zurich, and from 2006 to 2010 he was CEO of Allianz Versicherungs-AG, Munich, and an executive director at Allianz Deutschland AG, Munich. Since 2011, he has chaired the presidential boards of DEKRA e. V., Stuttgart, and DEKRA e. V. Dresden, as well as the supervisory boards of DEKRA SE, Stuttgart, and SÜDVERS Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Au near Freiburg. Thomas Pleines is an independent non-executive director.
Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz (1959, Germany, Prof. Dr rer. pol.) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2018. He has been a professor of economics at Saarland University since 2000 and at the University of Hamburg since 2008 and has been President of the HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration since 2004. From 1996 to 2017, he was Chief Executive Officer of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. Professor Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz is also Chairman of the European Chief Executive Officers working group (since 2000), a member of the board of trustees of HASPA Hamburger Sparkasse (since 1997), a member of the advisory board of HanseMerkur (since 2015), a member of the General Council and Executive Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (since 2014), a member of the Board of Directors of HIP Hamburg Innovation Port (since 2017) and a representative and counsellor of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce (since 2017). Professor Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz is an independent non-executive director.
Marie-Noëlle Venturi - Zen-Ruffinen (1975, Switzerland, Prof. Dr iur., lawyer) has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2016. She holds a PhD and master’s degree in law and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Fribourg. She is a lawyer and honorary professor at the School of Economics and Management at the University of Geneva, where she mainly lectures on corporate law. Professor Marie-Noëlle Venturi - Zen-Ruffinen was a partner in the Geneva law firm Tavernier Tschanz until 2012, and since that time has been of counsel for the firm. She is president of the Swiss Board Institute foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of Banco Santander (Suisse) SA and sits on the Board of Management of the Swiss Institute of Directors. Professor Marie-Noëlle Venturi - Zen-Ruffinen is an independent non-executive director.