Management
1967, Swiss
Until spring 2018 he worked for more than 30 years in various roles and on all five continents for pharmaceuticals company Novartis. He started his career as a chemistry apprentice and rose up through various positions to the Executive Committee. Among his jobs at Novartis, André Wyss was Chief Financial Officer for Research and Development, Head of Pharmaceutical Production in Europe, and head of various national and regional organisations, including for the company’s biggest market, the USA. Most recently, as President of Novartis Operations, he was in charge of all manufacturing as well as central corporate services such as real estate and infrastructure, IT, procurement, HR, accounting and corporate affairs. He was responsible for almost 40,000 people worldwide. Parallel to this, he was Country President for Novartis in Switzerland.
André Wyss has a degree in economics from the School of Economics and Business Administration (HWV) in Switzerland.
1975, Swiss
Adrian Wyss has been Head of Division Development for Switzerland since September 2015. He has a degree in Architecture (FH) and a Diploma in Corporate Management and has completed the internal "Winning the Future" management programme. He has worked at Implenia in various management roles since 2006. In Development, the important "Lokstadt" urban development project was successfully initiated under his leadership. From 2013, when he was still Head of Modernisation, he achieved great success in driving expansion of this unit in German-speaking and Western Switzerland. Previously, Adrian Wyss was, among other things, in overall charge of developing construction sites A (SBB AG, Zurich University of Teacher Education) and C (UBS AG) on the Europaallee in Zurich. Before joining Implenia, Adrian Wyss worked for Pfister Schiess Tropeano Architects as Head of Planning for the Hallenstadion in Zurich.
1984, German
Jens Vollmar joined the company in 2013. He has been Head of the Buildings business unit since 2017, with responsibility for the Group's building construction operations in Switzerland. He was previously Head of Business Development for this unit. Jens Vollmar was also responsible for CEO Support. In this role, as well as managing projects on behalf of the CEO, he was in charge of the office supporting senior management, and was part of the due diligence team which oversaw the takeover of Bilfinger Construction. After being awarded his doctorate, Jens Vollmar worked initially as a postdoc and consultant for the Institute of Public Finance, Fiscal Law and Law and Economics at the University of St. Gallen. Jens Vollmar is the author of various professional articles and books. As a freelance consultant he has also provided numerous expert opinions on mergers & acquisitions (M&A) for local and international companies, produced company and share valuations and managed corporate consultancy projects. He lectures in the fields of operational control, financial accounting and M&A. Jens Vollmar was for many years a member of the Habilitation Committee at the University of St. Gallen, the European Accounting Association and the American Accounting Association. Since 2018, Jens Vollmar has been a Member of the Board of Development Switzerland.
1968, German
Christian Späth has headed Implenia's global Civil Engineering Division since January 2020, building on many years of experience in the industry. After studying in Munich, the graduate civil engineer began his professional career at Hochtief in 1995 as a construction and project manager for tunnel construction in Essen and Munich. After ten years, Christian Späth joined Alpine Bau in 2005 as Head of Tunnelling Germany and became Branch Manager of International Civil Engineering in 2009. In May 2012, the German-born engineer finally joined Implenia in Wallisellen. From then on he took on responsibility in various specialist and management roles and continuously expanded his skills in the areas of complex large-scale projects. Between 2013 and 2015 Christian Späth was responsible for Implenia's market entry in tunnel construction in Austria and Germany and managed these units. From July 2015, he finally took over as head of the entire tunnel construction division in all markets. As part of Implenia's new strategy and organization, Christian Späth took over the Civil Engineering division at global level from March 2019 and continues to lead it in his role as Head of the Civil Engineering Division. Christian Späth has construction and project management experience in major civil engineering projects and has already been able to make his mark on all three of Implenia's civil engineering divisions - i.e. Civil Engineering, Tunneling and Special Foundation - in the international market environment.
1973, Danish
Since September 2019, Anita Eckardt is Head Division Specialties.
Anita Eckardt was previously CEO of Habitects, a Swiss start-up which is building a digital trade and service platform for the sanitation sector. In addition to her experience managing a start-up, she has many years of international experience in general management, marketing and sales. Among other things, she was Chief Operating Officer for the building materials group CRH Swiss Distribution, and held various management roles at Saint-Gobain, Bang & Olufsen and Grundfos. She holds a master degree in International Business Administration specialising in international business, finance and marketing from Munich Business School. She also qualified as an Executive Coach at the Coaching Institute of Copenhagen. Danish by birth, she speaks English, French and German in addition to her mother tongue.
1973, Swiss
His previous posts have included CFO with SBB's Infrastructure division, CFO for the Aviation division at RUAG and Commercial Finance Director at the Compass Group in London. Marco Dirren has a Master of Science in Finance and Financial Law from the University of London, an Executive MBA in International Management (Bern University of Applied Sciences, Peking University and Babson College, Boston) and a Bachelor in Business Studies specialising in Finance (former HWV).
1973, French
Christelle Beneteau was employed until recently as Global Head of HR Business Partnering and Corporate HR Head at LafargeHolcim. She was responsible for the HR Function for all corporate locations and for all global functions and global businesses worldwide. Before that she had worked as Global Head of HR Services at Clariant and European HR Head of Commercial Operations at eBay. The science graduate has an engineering degree in Organic Chemistry from the ÉCOLE Supérieure de Chimie in Lille and a Master's in Organic Chemistry from Heriott-Watt University in Edinburgh.
1969, Swiss
In his present post he has been in charge of the Group's Legal Service since January 2014. German Grüniger studied at the University of Freiburg, was admitted to the bar in Canton Aargau and then took a doctorate at the University of Basel. In between, he took a postgraduate diploma (LL.M.) in the USA, at New York University. After working briefly as a legal clerk, the qualified lawyer joined the Baur Hürlimann AG practice in Zurich, which specialises in construction law, first as an Associate, before being made a partner in the practice in 2007. He is a Member of the Boards of MediData AG, Bürgenstock Hotels AG, Bürgenstock Bahn AG and Bergbahnen Beckenried-Emmentten AG and of the Foundation Board of the Felsenweg am Bürgenstock Foundation.
1961, German
Matthias Jacob has been Head of Implenia Buildings Germany since January 2018. Before working at Implenia, he was Technical Director at Wolff & Müller Holding GmbH & Co. KG. After being awarded his doctorate and then working at the Technical University of Dortmund, from 1987 Matthias Jacob occupied various management positions in the construction industry, including from 2005 as a member, and then from 2007 to 2010 as Chairman of the Management Board of Bilfinger Hochbau GmbH. Matthias Jacob is Vice-President for Technology of the Confederation of the German Construction Industry, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the German Society for Concrete and Construction Technology and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the "Planen-bauen 4.0" initiative that was founded in February 2015. As well as being a member of the advisory board for the REM and CPM Master's courses and a lecturer at the University of Wuppertal, he lectures at various German universities and at technical conferences.