Group Management
As of December 31, 2016, Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG’s Group Management had four members:
After Group Management and Extended Group Management were consolidated on January 1, 2017, Group Management consists of five additional members, which makes a total of nine Group Management members as of January 1, 2017.
* Uwe Sommer will retire and thus leave Group Management as of April 30, 2017.
Dr Dieter Weisskopf (CH), lic. rer. pol. — Mr. Weisskopf joined the Lindt & Sprüngli Group in 1995 as Head of Finance, Administration, IT and Purchasing. Since 2004, he has also been responsible for manufacturing. As of October 1, 2016, he took over as CEO of the Lindt & Sprüngli Group and is responsible for Group Legal, Corporate Communications and Corporate HR. Starting his career at Swiss Union Bank, he gained additional experience in the banking sector in South America, later changing to the food industry, joining the Jacobs Suchard Group. At Jacobs Suchard and at Klaus Jacobs Holding, he held executive management positions in the financial sector, lastly as CFO in Canada and Switzerland.
Uwe Sommer (CH), Economist, MA — Mr. Sommer joined Lindt & Sprüngli in 1993 as a member of Group Management, responsible for Marketing and Sales with country responsibilities. Since August 2012, he has been responsible for the Global Retail area. He worked previously as an executive in the marketing/sales sector of Procter & Gamble, Mars in Germany and England and as CEO with Johnson & Johnson in Austria. Uwe Sommer will retire from Group Management as of 30 April 2017.
Andreas Pfluger (CH), lic. rer. pol. — Mr. Pfluger began his career with Unilever in Switzerland before joining Lindt & Sprüngli (Schweiz) AG as Marketing Manager in 1994. In 1997, he took over responsibility as CEO for building up the subsidiary in Australia. He has held further positions as CEO of the French subsidiary and of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in California (USA). Since 2005, Mr. Pfluger has been responsible country-wide for North American markets. In 2011, he returned to the Swiss headquarters to work for Extended Group Management and was promoted to member of Group Management in 2013, where he is responsible for the development of specific markets. Since the 2014 takeover of the American group Russell Stover Candies LLC, Mr. Pfluger has supervised their integration into the Lindt & Sprüngli Group and is CEO of Russell Stover.
Rolf Fallegger (CH), lic. oec. HSG — Mr. Fallegger began his career in 1991 in marketing with Procter & Gamble in Geneva, Great Britain, and Belgium. He joined Lindt & Sprüngli (Schweiz) AG as Marketing Manager in 1997. He was then appointed CEO of the Lindt & Sprüngli subsidiary companies in Great Britain and France. In 2009, he returned to the Swiss base and in 2011 was appointed as member of the Extended Group Management. In 2014, he was promoted to member of the Group Management, where he continues to be responsible for the development of specific markets.
Dr Adalbert Lechner (AT), PhD in Law — After receiving his PhD in law, Mr. Lechner held several managements positions in marketing and sales with L’Oréal and Johnson & Johnson. He joined the Lindt & Sprüngli Group as CEO of the Austrian subsidiary company in 1993. In 1997, he took over responsibility for Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli GmbH in Aachen, and in 2001, for the Austrian subsidiary. He was a member of Extended Group Management from 2011 until 2016. As of 1 January 2017 he is member of Group Management and assumes additional responsibility for the market in Scandinavia.
Kamillo Kitzmantel (AT/CH), Mag. Handelswissenschaft — Mr. Kitzmantel initially held various positions with Fischer Ski, Johnson & Johnson and Bahlsen before joining Lindt & Sprüngli Germany in 1994 as Marketing and Sales Manager. One year later, he was appointed CEO of the Swiss subsidiary company, over which he still presides today. He also took over temporary management responsibility for the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in the USA and national responsibility for the Italian market. He has been a member of Extended Group Management since 2011. In August 2012, he also assumed responsibility for Duty-Free.
Martin Hug (CH), Economist, MA — Mr. Hug started his career as Finance Director at Volcafe in Costa Rica, before he joined Lindt & Sprüngli in 2004 as Senior Corporate Controller. Only a short time later he was promoted to CFO at Lindt & Sprüngli UK. Since 2011, he holds the position as CFO at Ghirardelli. As of January 1,2017 he succeeded Mr. Weisskopf as Group CFO and is a member of Group Management.
Alain Germiquet (CH), lic. oec. — Mr. Germiquet started his career in the Sales division of two notable mineral oil companies before joining Hiestand in 1999, where he was promoted from Marketing Director to Managing Director in a short time. In 2005, he became Commercial Director at Nestlé and in 2007, he joined Lindt & Sprüngli first as CEO of Lindt & Sprüngli UK and since 2009 as CEO at Lindt & Sprüngli France. As of 1 January 2017 he assumes responsibility for several countries and International Sales and is a member of Group Management.
Guido Steiner (CH) Dipl. Lm-Ing. ETH — Mr. Steiner began his career as assistant at the Chair for Business Administration at ETH in Zurich. In 1990, he joined Lindt & Sprüngli as Assistant Manager Group Production Planning. Two years later he was promoted Group Production Planning Manager. From 1998 until 2003 he was Vice President Operations at Lindt & Sprüngli USA. Since 2003, he is back at the Headquarters as Vice President Operations. As of January 1, 2017 he is member of Group Management and continues to be in charge of Group Operations.
Except for the above-mentioned assignments, members of Group Management are currently not involved in other management or supervisory bodies. They are not active in managing or consulting functions with closely related parties, nor do they hold public or political office. There are no management agreements with either legal entities or natural persons outside the Group.