EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2024: six Swiss business personalities collect awards

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• The winners in the four categories of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2024 award are: Silvia Scherer (APTISSEN SA), Andrea Galli (Pini Group SA), Esther Studer, Peter Galliker, Rolf Galliker, (Galliker Transport AG) and Péter Fankhauser (ANYbotics AG).
• The awards ceremony, attended by around 400 invited guests, was held this evening as part of a gala event at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL).
• This is the 27th time EY Switzerland has staged the extensive support and networking program for entrepreneurs.

Zurich, 4 October 2024 – The auditing and consulting firm EY Switzerland’s Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award 2024 – the 27th year of the program – has been presented to Swiss business personalities in recognition of their innovation and commitment. Stefan Rösch-Rütsche, EY Switzerland’s Country Managing Partner, commented: “Entrepreneurs do so much for our country and contribute to our prosperity, so it has been an honor for us to recognize them for more than a quarter of a century. As in previous years, we had the privilege of selecting the winners in the four categories of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award from an array of top-class finalists – our way of showing our appreciation for Swiss entrepreneurship.”

This year’s awards ceremony was held this evening as part of a gala at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL). Around 400 distinguished guests who had traveled from all over Switzerland attended the celebrations and witnessed a thrilling awards ceremony with outstanding finalists. The art of entrepreneurship was combined with the art of music on stage at one of the best concert halls in the world right on Lake Lucerne. Jodok Cello, the Lucerne cellist, enriched the occasion with a musical intermezzo.

Artificial Intelligence, which is determining so many technological developments at present, also played a prominent role. What appeared to be paintings of the participating entrepreneurs were on display at the KKL, but on closer inspection these turned out to be AI-controlled screens: the entrepreneurs depicted in the “paintings” were making facial expressions and moving slightly, which was disconcerting for those attending.

EY Switzerland is supported in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ program by Julius Baer as program partner, as well as AMAG, Girard-Perregaux, HDI and SWISS as sponsors.

The awards ceremony is the highlight of a year-long program for all the entrepreneurs in the running. However, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is much more than just the “Oscars for entrepreneurs”: it is a tight-knit and established network for business personalities that enables and fosters contact and exchanges between all those across the world who have ever been contenders. The global network stretches over 60 countries and now comprises more than 50,000 entrepreneurs.

Frédéric Tissot, Head of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Switzerland, said: “In total, 63 exciting business personalities applied for the program in 2024 – more than ever before. I would like to thank them all hugely for their outstanding applications and congratulate those entrepreneurs who triumphed against such strong competition this evening.”

A panel of ten judges is responsible for evaluating the finalists of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Awards and selecting the winners. The judges on the panel review and select the finalists autonomously and independently of EY Switzerland, before deciding on the winners of the competition. The six prizewinners this year are:

Silvia Scherer, APTISSEN SA (Geneva), in the category “Industry, High-Tech & Life Sciences”

Eradicating muscle and joint pain: that is the vision of APTISSEN SA. The injectable gel SynolisTM was launched by APTISSEN under the leadership of co-founder Silvia Scherer, who has a PhD in natural sciences. This is an innovative product that rapidly helps to restore mobility and provide long-lasting pain relief.

The judges say: “Silvia Scherer is a star entrepreneur who has shown enormous innovative spirit to successfully position her company in a short space of time. Unlike most others, a strong innovative spirit is not just perceptible, but tangible. This is reflected in the enormous potential of the actual product. If Ms. Scherer succeeds in implementing her vision and providing long-lasting muscle and joint pain relief with a product that can be administered by the customer, the company has a bright future ahead of it.”

Andrea Galli, Pini Group SA (Graubünden), in the category “Services & Commerce”

Pini Group has multidisciplinary teams on all five continents developing smart, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for complex technical projects of any size – from railway tunnels to road bridges and airport terminals, and from power stations to hospitals and data centers. Group CEO Andrea Galli succinctly sums up what the company wants to do: “Make it happen.”

The judges say: “The decentralized organization of his company has allowed Andrea Galli to bring Swiss quality to the international stage in an innovative fashion. The specific structure of his company, is allowing him to successfully position it in a traditional industry. By applying his special concept he has built up a worldwide network of engineering offices and talent, enabling him to successfully implement even the largest and most complex infrastructure projects. At the same time, he has managed to control the extremely fast growth of his firm and achieve long-term business success.”

Esther Studer, Peter Galliker, Rolf Galliker, Galliker Transport AG (Lucerne), in the category “Family Business”

Esther Studer, Peter Galliker and Rolf Galliker are the third generation of their family to head Galliker Transport AG, which was set up in 1918 and has grown from a small haulage company into a logistics company operating throughout Europe – with 3,500 employees at 19 sites in six countries. This is partly because the three siblings are keeping up the tradition of thinking in terms of generations, not quarters.

The judges say: “The Gallikers are a family of entrepreneurs par excellence, whose personal commitment and passionate innovative spirit are helping them hold their own in a difficult market. What is particularly impressive is the extraordinary innovative capability that goes way beyond the traditional transport business and also credibly takes on the topic of sustainability. Galliker Transport AG walks the walk when it comes to shared values and implements its visions with foresight to the benefit of the long-term and sustainable development of the company. The three business personalities winning our award today are looking to the future and the next generation is already being brought into the company in a prudent manner.”

Péter Fankhauser, ANYbotics AG (Zurich), in the category “Emerging Entrepreneur”

Four-legged robots with AI-driven agility take recurring, dirty and dangerous tasks off the hands of workers in the oil, gas and chemical industry, improving not just their productivity, but also their quality of life: that is the mission of ANYbotics, a spin-off of ETH Zurich’s Robotic Systems Lab run by co-founder Péter Fankhauser.

The judges say: “Péter Fankhauser and his team deliver cutting-edge technology from Switzerland. His pioneering offering is helping him to hold his own against global competition. He has not just managed to establish his company in a market in which it had to overcome major competition. The innovative spirit seems to know no bounds in this firm and impresses in all respects: a highly innovative hiring approach is taken when using reliable robotic technology in surroundings dangerous for people, with the robots hired reporting to HR departments like human employees.”

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year – a global network for business personalities

The awards ceremony is the highlight of a year-long program for all the entrepreneurs in the running. However, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is much more than just the “Oscars for entrepreneurs”: it is a tight-knit and established network for business personalities that enables and fosters contact and exchanges between all those across the world who have ever been contenders. The global network stretches over 60 countries and now comprises more than 50,000 entrepreneurs.

The jury of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year awards in Switzerland

The ten jury members review and select the finalists autonomously and independently of EY Switzerland, before deciding on the winners of the competition. The jury is made up of the following personalities from the Swiss business scene:

• Dr. Adrienne Corboud Fumagalli, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Unyversal Technologies and Member of the Board of Directors of Swiss Life
• Marco Gadola, Chairman of the Board of Directors, DKSH, Medartis and WS Audiology
• Thomas Hanan, Founder & CEO, Webrepublic, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017
• Michael Mueller, Group CEO, Valora and Head Europe FEMSA Proximity & Health
• Dr. Jan Lichtenberg, CEO, InSphero, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2015
• Didier Maus, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Maus Frères
• Jean-Marc Probst, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Probst Group Holding
• Franziska Tschudi Sauber, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors Weidmann Holding, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022
• Dr. Pascale Vonmont, CEO, Gebert Rüf Stiftung
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Zellweger, Director of the Center for Family Business, University of St.Gallen

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