AXPO UK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head Business Area Generation & Distribution, Deputy CEO, Swiss National
Andy Heiz, dipl. El.-Ing. (electrical engineer) ETH and MBA INSEAD, has been Head of the Generation & Distribution business area and a member of the Executive Board of Axpo Holding AG since November 2014 and Deputy CEO since 1 October 2019.
From 2007 to September 2014, he worked for ABB, first as Head of Corporate Strategy, and, from 2011, as Head of Product Group Renewables. Prior to that, he held various management positions (most recently Associate Principal) at McKinsey & Company in the United States as well as ABB Alstom Power in Malaysia and ABB Power Generation in Switzerland.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer, Swiss National
Christoph Brand has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Axpo Group since May 2020 and holds a degree in economics from the University of Bern. He also completed the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD.
From 2012 to 2020, he held various positions at the TX Group (formerly Tamedia), most recently as CEO of TX Markets, which includes the companies Ricardo, Tutti, Jobs and Homegate. Previously, he was CEO of the software company Adcubum, CEO of the telecoms company Sunrise, CEO of Bluewin and held leading positions at Swisscom, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer and member of the Group Executive Board.
Job Titles:
- Head Business Area Trading & Sales, Swiss and Italian National
Domenico De Luca, M. Sc. Mechanical Engineering from the Università La Sapienza (Rome) and Chartered Financial Analyst CFA, holds an MBA, completed the AMP at the IESE Business School and the Certificate of Quantitative Finance Programme in London. Domenico De Luca has been Head of Trading & Sales and a member of the Executive Board of Axpo Holding AG since October 2014.
From 2009 to 2014, he was responsible for business activities in the International Trading & Origination division of Axpo Trading AG (until 2012 EGL AG; since 2018 Axpo Solutions AG) and a member of its Executive Board. Between 2007 and 2009 he was CEO of EGL Italia and before that Managing Director of EGL España from 2001 to 2007.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer, Swiss and German
- Doctor of Physics
Harald Gauck, Doctor of Physics from the University of Konstanz, has been Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a member of the Executive Board of Axpo Holding AG since 1 January 2024.
He has held various management positions in Axpo's finance division since 2008, most recently as Head of Controlling & Services in the Trading & Sales business division. He is a Swiss and German citizen. Harald Gauck has many years of in-depth experience in all areas of energy trading as well as in the production and distribution of energy.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer ( COO
- Chief Operating Officer, Danish National
Henriette Wendt has been Chief Operating Officer (COO) since June 2021 and in this role integrally manages the steering functions, Corporate Human Resources, Ethics & Compliance, Technology Management, Partnering & Investing, Transformation & Group Projects and Corporate Procurement. She holds a Master's degree in Business Strategy from the International Business School ESSEC (Paris).
From 2019 to 2021, she worked at Microsoft Switzerland as Marketing & Operations Officer. Previously, she worked mainly in the telecoms sector (Telia Company, Swisscom, Motorola, etc.). For the Swedish Telia Company, she managed the business in Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark (turnover CHF 1.5 billion) as a member of the Group Executive Board.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategy Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors, Swiss National
Jakob Stark, Dr. phil. I, has been a member of the Board of Directors and the Strategy Committee since January 2021.
Since December 2019, he has represented the Canton of Thurgau in the Council of States for the SVP. From June 2006 to May 2020, he was a member of the Thurgau Government Council. Prior to that, he was mayor of the municipality for 18 years, ten of them full-time and eight years part-time in combination with his work as a business and domestic editor for various Swiss newspapers.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit and Finance Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors, German National
Katja Pluto is a business mathematician and holds an M.Phil in Finance from the University of Cambridge. She has been a member of the Board of Directors since March 2023. She is also a member of the Audit and Finance Committee.
Until the end of 2022, she was Chief Risk Officer for Europe and the Middle East at Zurich Insurance Group. From 2007 to 2016, Ms. Pluto was Head of Risk Management at HSBC in London, most recently as Chief Risk Officer of the European Corporate and Trading business. Prior to that, she worked in the banking supervision department of the Deutsche Bundesbank as an auditor for market and credit risks.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors, Swiss National
Martin Keller, dipl. Civil engineer HTL/SIA, has been a member of the Board of Directors since April 2019 and a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee since June 2019.
Since July 2018, he has been Managing Director of Sika Schweiz AG. Previously, he worked in the construction industry and in the cement industry. From 2008 to 2019, he was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Aargau, as well as the Commission for the Environment, Construction, Transport, Energy and Spatial Planning, and from 2009 to 2013 its President.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ) of CKW AG
- Chief Executive Officer CKW, Swiss National
Martin Schwab has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CKW AG since April 2018 and a member of the Executive Board of Axpo Holding AG since February 2011. He holds a degree in Business Administration HF, is an expert in accounting and controlling and has an MBA from the University of Rochester, N.Y.
From February 2011 to March 2018, he was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Axpo Holding AG. From 2005 to the end of 2010, he was CFO of the Selecta Group. Prior to that, he was Finance Director and Deputy Managing Director of Compass Group (Switzerland) AG and Management Reporting Manager of Compass Group in London. From 1999 to 2002 he was Chief Financial Officer at Selecta AG and previously Commercial Director at Dr Siegrist AG.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Head of the Generation & Distribution
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit and Finance Committee
- Economist
- Member of the Board of Directors, German National
- Representative BoD in Corporate Risk Council
Peter Kreuzberg, graduate economist and Dr. rer. pol., has been a member of the Board of Directors, the Audit and Finance Committee and a member of the Corporate Risk Council since March 2017. He has been a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee since March 2023.
Since 2013, he has been working as an independent Senior Advisor in the fields of energy and finance. From 2004 to 2012, he was a member of the Management Board of RWE Supply & Trading with commercial responsibility in the areas of asset optimisation and energy trading. Between 2002 and 2004, he was Head of Commodity Risk Management at RWE Group. Prior to that, he was Director of Structured Products Trading at Enron Europe Ltd in London.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Strategy Committee
- Electrical Engineer
- Member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee
Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler, Electrical Engineer HTL, Executive MBA HSG, has been a member of the Board of Directors and the Strategy Committee since March 2017. He has chaired the Strategy Committee since January 2021 and has also been a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee since January 2020. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Executive Board of Swisscom Ltd., responsible for SME business, since 2016 as Chief Digital Officer responsible for Swisscom's digital business, and since June responsible for Swisscom mandates and projects.
Job Titles:
- Mechanical Engineer
- Member of the Strategy Committee
- Independent Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Board of Directors, Swiss
Samuel Leupold, Mechanical Engineer MSc ETH, MBA INSEAD, has been a member of the Board of Directors and the Strategy Committee since January 2024.
Since 2019, Samuel Leupold has been an independent member of the Board of Directors and a consultant with a focus on energy and infrastructure. Prior to that, he was CEO of Ørsted Wind Power (formerly Dong Energy Wind Power), the world's leading offshore wind farm development and operation company, for five years. Prior to that, Samuel Leupold was Head of International Energy and Trade at the BKW Group. He started his career at ABB and worked at McKinsey as a consultant, also for companies in the energy sector.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Audit and Finance Committee
- Member of the Board of Directors, Swiss National
Stefan Kessler, lic. iur. HSG, LL.M., Attorney-at-Law, has been a member of the Board of Directors since January 2018 and Chairman of the Audit and Finance Committee since January 2019.
Since 2017, Stefan Kessler has been working as an independent management consultant with a focus on interim management and M&A transaction management (Kreis2 AG) and as a member of the board of directors. Prior to that, he spent around 12 years at the Graubünden-based energy company Repower in various management positions. Most recently, he played a key role in shaping the company as CFO and thus a member of the Executive Board of Repower. Prior to that, he worked as legal counsel at a bank and as a lawyer at a large commercial law firm in Zurich.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee
- Member of the Audit and Finance Committee
- Chairman of Remuneration and Nomination Committee
- Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Swiss National / Stephan Kuhn, Lic
Vice chairman of the Board of Directors, Swiss national Stephan Kuhn, lic. oec. HSG, has been a member of the Board of Directors since January 2018 and a member of the Audit and Finance Committee since January 2019. Since Jan 2024, he has also been Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee. Prior to that, he was a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee until June 2019 and a member of the Strategy Committee from January 2022 to January 2024. Since 2015 he has been working as an independent Senior Advisor. From 2002 to 2015, Stephan Kuhn worked at Ernst & Young (EY). Most recently, he was Head of Tax and Legal Advice at EY in EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) and, in parallel, was responsible for advising and auditing financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, asset managers) in Switzerland from 2011 to 2014. Other mandates: Charitable foundations and associations in the fields of education and culture.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors, Swiss National / Thomas Sieber, Lic
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Swiss national Thomas Sieber, lic. oec. HSG, has been Chairman of the Board of Directors since March 2016 and was also a delegate of the Board of Directors from October 2019 to the end of April 2020. He was also a member of the Audit and Finance Committee from 2016 to January 2018, a member of the Strategy Committee until 2022 and a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee until March 2023. From 2012 to the end of 2015, Thomas Sieber was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Salt Mobile SA, which he led as CEO from 2009 to 2012. Previously, he held senior positions at Hewlett Packard Inc. and Fujitsu Siemens Computers AG. Other mandates: Member of the Board of Directors of HCL Technologies.