Dr. H. C. Willy Michel

Biography

Until April 2003, Willy Michel was the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Disetronic Holding AG and since 2003 he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ypsomed Holding AG. From August 2011 to June 2014, Willy Michel was Delegate of the Board of Directors and CEO of Ypsomed Holding AG and the Ypsomed Group. He founded Disetronic together with his brother in 1984 and they were together until his brother’s departure from the business in 1995, whereupon Willy Michel became solely responsible for the development, production, distribution and sale of Disetronic products (until 1999). Within the scope of the sale of Disetronic to Roche Holding AG in 2003, Willy Michel bought back Disetronic’s injection business, which has subsequently traded under the name Ypsomed. Prior to the founding of Disetronic, Willy Michel, who holds a professional qualification as a pharmaceutical consultant with a federal diploma, obtained a broad range of experience with several industrial and pharmaceutical companies in the fields of development, sales and marketing and he was the head of Novo Nordisk Switzerland for six years (from 1978 until 1984). Willy Michel was the founder, majority shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the non-listed company Finox AG, with the purpose of development, manufacturing and sale of pharmaceuticals and was sold to Gedeon Richter in 2016. Willy Michel is the majority shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Fertility Biotech AG founded in 2016, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of BV Holding AG (Chairman from 2001 until March 2008), an equity investment company which is listed on the BX Berne eXchange and Chairman (since 2012, a member since 2007) of the Board of Directors of Adval Tech Holding AG, which is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. In addition, he is the owner of a number of companies, including well-known firms involved in the fields of art, watch-making and catering, and is a member of the Boards of Directors of various non-listed companies operating in different sectors from the Ypsomed Group and of no significance to its business activities. Willy Michel was declared the “Master Entrepreneur of the Year” for his overall business performance by Ernst & Young AG in 2005 and in 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr. h. c.) by the Economic and Social Science Faculty of the University of Bern. In 2014, the Swiss Association for Internal and Integrated Communication (SVIK) awarded Willy Michel the “Communicator of the Year” (COTY) Award 2014.

Research Interest

 Sales and Marketing