CEO appointment underlines Swiss Post's digital ambitions
British Telecom’s chief executive for Switzerland, Susanne Ruoff, will take over as chief executive of Swiss Post from the beginning of September next year. The Swiss national postal service announced today that Ruoff, 53, will succeed Jürg Bucher when he retires.
Her appointment is seen by the company as strengthening its executive skills base to support ambitions to expand into digital communications.
With a background as an economist, the next Swiss Post CEO has held senior positions at telecommunications and IT companies including BT and IBM over the past 20 years, joining BT Switzerland as country manager/CEO in April 2009, having worked at IBM since 1990.
“By selecting Ruoff, the Board of Directors is relying on a nationally well-positioned top manager,” said the company in a statement. “At BT, she has been focusing on expanding the key account business and on the acquisition of new clients.”
The company added that Ruoff has experience in various business functions, including services, sales and marketing, and has developed close relationships with the Swiss government and federal agencies.
Swiss Post is also currently searching for a new chief financial officer, with Markus Zenhäusern retiring earlier this month for reasons of ill health, to be replaced temporarily by deputy head of finance Thomas Egger.
Digital
The company said its first female CEO had “pronounced competencies” in the digital communications arena, which would “crucially strengthen” the company’s executive management in view of future challenges to the mail.
Profits and revenues have been falling recently at Swiss Post as letter volumes decline, and with foot traffic in post offices reducing.
The company is actively pursuing digital innovations, including the pioneering of hybrid mail services including distance-publishing solutions for print media. Its business services unit, Swiss Post Solutions, is also active in helping business customers to digitise their own communications systems.
“In the coming years, Swiss Post’s customers will increasingly ask also for electronic services,” the company said. “Swiss Post thus wants to continue implementing its strategy of connecting the physical with the electronic postal world in a targeted manner. Thanks to her competencies, Susanne Ruoff will actively support this change.”
The next Swiss Post CEO is a graduate of French business school INSEAD, and has an MBA in telecommunications from Fribourg University. Ruoff is married with two children, and lives in Crans-Montana, in the western Swiss Alps.
