4 Executive Committee
The Executive Committee manages the operations and deals with all transactions that are of significant importance to the Group. Together with the other members of the Executive Committee, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is responsible for drawing up, implementing, and achieving the Group's corporate targets.
4.1 Members of the Executive Committee
Lars van der Haegen (1968, Swiss citizen) was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Head of the Executive Committee in July 2015. Prior to that, he held various management positions at Belimo: Head of Product Management Air Volume Control Europe from 2000 to 2002, Head of Product Management and Marketing at Belimo Americas in Danbury (Connecticut, USA) from 2003 to 2006, Managing Director of Belimo Italy from 2007 to 2010, and Head of Group Division Americas and member of the Executive Committee from 2011 to June 2015. Lars van der Haegen is a Building Technology Designer and holds in addition a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School in New York (USA) and an MBA from London Business School (Great Britain).
Other Significant Mandates
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Schweiter Technologies AG1), Steinhausen (Switzerland), since 2020. He is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) since 2011, a member of the Doing Business in the USA chapter of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, Zurich (Switzerland), since 2015, a member of CEO4Climate, an initiative of swisscleantech since 2022, and a member of the advisory board of the foundation >>venture>>, Zurich (Switzerland), since 2023.
1) Listed company.
Dr. Elena Cortona (1970, Swiss and Italian citizen) was appointed Chief Technology Officer, Head of Group Division Innovation, as well as member of the Executive Committee in October 2020, effective June 2021. She has worked for the Schindler Group, Ebikon (Switzerland), in various positions since 2001; recently as Senior Vice President, Head of Digital Transformation in the CTO Division. Since October 2022, Dr. Elena Cortona is a member of the Innovation Council of Innosuisse, the innovation agency of the Swiss Confederation. She graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy) and the RWTH Aachen (Germany). From 1996 to 2000, she completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Institute of Energy Technology (IET) at ETH Zurich (Switzerland).
Other Significant Mandates
She is a member of the Board of Directors of INTERROLL HOLDING AG1), Sant’ Antonino (Switzerland), since 2019. She is a member of the Innovation Council of Innosuisse, Bern (Switzerland), since 2022.
1) Listed company.
Gary Economides (1970, Australian citizen) was appointed Head of Group Division Asia Pacific and member of the Executive Committee in November 2012. Prior to that, he was a product manager at Staefa Control System in Sydney (Australia) from 1994 to 1997, served in various management roles at Siemens Building Technologies in Hong Kong (China) from 1998 to 2005, and was Managing Director of Carel Asia in Hong Kong (China) from 2005 to 2009, and CEO of Carel Electronic in Suzhou (China) from 2009 to 2012. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Technology Sydney (Australia) and an MBA from the University of New South Wales, Australian Graduate School of Management in Hong Kong (China).
James W. Furlong (1960, American citizen) was appointed Head of Group Division Americas and member of the Executive Committee in March 2016. Prior to that, he held management positions with the building equipment provider York International from 1991 to 1999 and with Baltimore Aircoil Company from 1999 to 2008. From 2008 to 2016, he was Vice President of Industrial Refrigeration at Johnson Controls. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Manhattan College (New York, USA), an MBA from Loyola University (Maryland, USA), and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Connecticut (USA).
Louis Scheidegger (1966, Swiss citizen) has been Head of the Group Division Production since 2008 and was appointed member of the Executive Committee in March 2019. He joined Belimo in 1991 and studied electrical engineering at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in Winterthur (Switzerland). From 2001 to 2002, he attended the International Senior Management Program at the St. Gallen Business School (Switzerland) and from 2015 to 2016 the Asia Executive Certificate Program at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland).
Dr. Markus Schürch (1971, Swiss citizen) was appointed member of the Executive Committee in September 2018 and Head of Group Division Finance and Business Services as well as Chief Financial Officer in January 2019. Prior to that, he worked at Landis+Gyr in Zug (Switzerland) in various positions from 2004 to 2018. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President & CFO for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region of the company from 2012 to 2018. Before joining Landis+Gyr, he was engaged as a consultant and project manager at McKinsey in Zurich (Switzerland) from 1999 to 2004. Dr. Markus Schürch holds a doctorate and a master's degree in Chemical Engineering from ETH Zurich (Switzerland), Dr. sc. tech. ETH.
Other Significant Mandates
He has been chairman of the Board of Trustees of the pension fund of BELIMO Automation AG, Hinwil (Switzerland), since 2019.
Dr. Adrian Staufer (1968, Swiss citizen) was appointed Head of Group Division EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and member of the Executive Committee in July 2021. On January 1, 2022, he took over the position from Lukas Eigenmann. He has worked for Belimo since November 1, 2016, initially as Business Development Manager Sensors. On January 1, 2019, he was appointed Head of Strategy and Brand Management and a member of the extended Executive Committee. From 1998 to 2011, he worked at Siemens Building Technologies in various positions, including leading the global Business Segment “OEM Air Conditioning & Refrigeration.” From 2011 to 2016, he worked for Schindler Elevators in Ebikon (Switzerland), most recently as Vice President in Internet of Elevators & Escalators and Remote Services. Dr. Adrian Staufer holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (Bachelor's) and Industrial Engineering & Management (Master's) from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) as well as in Advanced Manufacturing Systems (Master) from Brunel University in London (United Kingdom). In addition, he completed his PhD in Innovation Management at ETH Zurich (Switzerland).
4.2 Duties and Responsibilities
The Executive Committee handles all transactions that are significantly important to Belimo.
The main duties of the Executive Committee are as follows:
- Development and implementation of the overall strategy and the overall budget.
- Design and implementation of the structures and systems necessary for the management of the Group.
- Optimal utilization of Group resources.
- Utilization of potential synergies present within the Group.
- Promotion of cooperation and communication within the Group.
- Preparation of motions that fall within the authority of the Board of Directors.
- Management of environmental, social, and governance topics (for additional information, refer to the Materiality Overview).
4.3 Permissible Activities outside the Group / Mandates
No member of the Executive Committee may hold more than two additional mandates in the ultimate strategic management bodies or on the ultimate Boards of listed companies that do not belong to the Group. The Board of Directors may allow a maximum of two exceptions per member in specific cases. The acceptance of a maximum of four mandates in the ultimate strategic management bodies or on the ultimate Boards of non-listed companies that do not belong to the Belimo Group is permissible for a member of the Executive Committee, if the member of the Executive Committee is not impaired in exercising his or her obligations to the Belimo Group.
4.4 Management Contracts
There are no management contracts with companies or individuals outside Belimo.
4.5 Gender Quota
The proportion of female Executive Committee members is 14%. Belimo is committed to increasing the proportion of women on the Executive Committee and in management.