Corporate Governance

Chair

Dr. Martin Komischke was elected as chairman of the Board of Directors of VAT at the AGM in May 2017. From 2004 to 2016, Dr. Martin Komischke served as CEO of HOERBIGER Holding AG following his function as Head of the Strategic Business Unit “Drive Technology” and member of the Executive Board from 1996 to 2003. Before that, he held various functions at Kolbenschmidt AG and Mannesmann-Sachs AG. Dr. Martin Komischke currently serves as chairman of the Board of HOERBIGER Holding AG (since 2016) and HOERBIGER GmbH (since 1993). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of  Stäubli Holding AG (since 2016), a member of the Supervisory Board of Aixtron SE (since 2013) and the Vice President of the Board of Trustees of HOERBIGER Foundation (since 2016).

Vice-Chair

Urs Leinhäuser was elected to VAT’s Board of Directors in March 2016. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Leinhäuser was Head of Corporate Controlling at Georg Fischer AG and later CFO of Georg Fischer’s Piping Systems Division. From 1999 to 2003, he was CFO of Mövenpick Holding AG. From 2003 to 2011, Mr. Leinhäuser was CFO and Head of the Corporate Center at Rieter Holding AG. After the spin-off of Autoneum Holding AG from Rieter Holding AG in 2011, Mr. Leinhäuser was CFO and Deputy CEO of Autoneum Holding AG until 2014. Mr. Since 2014, Urs Leinhäuser is self-employed and since 2016 he is partner (respectively from 2017 managing partner) at Adulco GmbH. Leinhäuser currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ammann Group Holding AG, Burckhardt Compression Holding AG, Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG and he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Avesco AG. Mr. Leinhäuser holds a degree in business administration from the University of Applied Sciences in Zurich, Switzerland.

Member

Karl Schlegel rejoined the Group as a member of the Board of Directors of VAT in February 2014 following the acquisition by Partners Group and Capvis Equity Partners. Between 2004 and 2013 he was the CEO of VAT. Prior to this, Karl Schlegel served as CEO of Hamilton Medical AG between 1997 and 2003. Mr. Schlegel is also a member of the foundation board of Stiftung Arwole (a charity for individuals with disabilities, since 2014). Karl Schlegel holds a bachelor’s degree of science from the medical engineering department of the University of Applied Sciences and Technology Buchs (NTB) and an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen.

Member

Libo Zhang was elected a member of the Board of Directors of VAT in May 2018. Previously, Ms Zhang was CFO of the German automotive manufacturer Borgward Group AG and an independent finance and controlling consultant based in Switzerland. From 2010 to 2015 she held various senior financial management positions in Germany and Asia at SGL Group, a leading global manufacturer of carbon-based products, including regional CFO and senior manager of corporate development, mergers and acquisitions. For more than 10 years prior to that, she held senior positions in finance and commercial operations in the German engineering and aerospace sector. She also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of CIC Controlling GmbH in Dortmund, Germany. Ms Zhang holds PhD in Economics and an MBA from Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany.

Member

Petra Denk was elected a member of the Board of Directors of VAT in May 2023. Ms. Denk holds a PhD in physics from the University of Munich and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. Prior to her professorship, she held a number of senior management positions at E.ON Energie in Munich, with experience in mergers and acquisitions, business development, and strategy development. She is also a Supervisory Board Member at Aixtron SE, a manufacturer of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition equipment for the semiconductor industry, and of Pfisterer AG, a manufacturer of high-voltage cable accessories. Ms. Denk is also a member of the Board of Directors of Berner Kraftwerke AG, a Swiss-based energy and infrastructure company, and a member of the Scientific Board for the Center of Applied Energy Studies in Germany focused on the reduction of CO₂ emissions through renewable energies and efficiency measures.

Member

Hermann Gerlinger was elected as member of the Board of Directors of VAT at the AGM in May 2017. Between 2001 and 2016, Dr. Hermann Gerlinger was CEO of Carl Zeiss SMT AG and from 2006 to 2016 also member of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG. Before that he held various function for Carl Zeiss SMT AG and ZEISS AG. Dr. Hermann Gerlinger currently serves as advisor to the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG (since 2017), as member of the Supervisory Board of Siltronic AG (since 2011) and as member of the Advisory Board of the German National Metrology Institute (PTB) (since 2015).

Member

Daniel Lippuner was elected to the VAT Board of Directors in May 2020. From 2017 to 2019 Mr. Lippuner was the Chief Operating Officer at Meyer Burger Group, a global technology leader in the solar photovoltaic industry. Prior to that, he was CEO of Saurer AG, and over the course of more than 25 years has held senior management positions at a number of other international companies, including OC Oerlikon, Hilti Group and Rieter Automotive. Mr. Lippuner is currently a member of the Boards of Directors for the Remnex Foundation, 3S Solar Plus AG and Amsler Tex AG. He holds a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Member

Thomas Piliszczuk was elected a member of the Board of Directors of VAT in May 2024. Mr. Piliszczuk is senior expert with more than 30 years of leadership experience in the semiconductor industry. He currently serves as the SVP Worldwide Strategic Partnership and Strategy at Imec, the world-leading R&D and innovation hub in nanotechnologies and digital technologies, based in Brussels, Belgium. Prior assignments and senior executive positions include 14 years at Soitec, a global leader in innovating and manufacturing engineered substrates for the semiconductor industry and 13 years at KLA, San Jose, CA USA, the world leader in yield management solutions, wafer inspection and metrology. He holds a PhD in elementary optics from the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany and an executive MBA from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

CEO

was appointed CEO of VAT Group as of January 2024. He was previously EVP Semiconductor Solutions Group of VAT since August 2022. Mr. Gantner joined VAT in 2004 as a product manager and development engineer and was appointed head of the Semiconductor business unit in 2015. Prior to joining VAT, Mr. Gantner was an R&D engineer at Hamilton Medical AG. He also worked at Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) as a scientist in the comprehensive assessment of energy systems. Mr. Gantner holds a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).

CFO

was named CFO of VAT Group in 2021, effective as of the beginning of April. Mr. Chiozza joined VAT from Autoneum Group, the global leader in acoustic and thermal management for the automotive industry, where he was the divisional CFO for the Business Group South America, Middle East and Africa. Before that, Mr. Chiozza held a variety of senior finance positions at Rieter Group, including Group Controller, and established a successful track record in corporate development and mergers and acquisitions. He holds a Master’s degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.

COO

was appointed COO of VAT Group in October 2020. Previously, he was Head of Global Manufacturing for the building and construction products company Hilti AG in Kaufering, Germany. He has also held management positions at BSH Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte and Siemens AG, Germany. Thomas Berden holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and a degree in business economics from the University of Hagen, Germany.

Executive Vice-President Semiconductor Solutions Group

was appointed EVP Semiconductor Solutions Group of VAT in January 2024. Before joining VAT, Finn Felsberg worked for over 20 years at Infineon Technologies AG, in diverse functions in Germany, France and Malaysia. His professional journey has included roles in various areas as operational and strategic production planning, performance controlling, industrial engineering, startup of a new wafer fab, and purchasing. In his most recent positions, Mr. Felsberg assumed the role of Senior Vice President & General Manager leading business lines in Infineon’s Automotive division. Finn Felsberg holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Business Management from the Nordakademie University of Applied Sciences of the Industry, Elmshorn, Germany.