Mathias Brand - CEO Starting date 1 April 2020

Mathias Brand leads Kilchenmann AG into a promising future.

As announced, Mathias Brand took over the management of Kilchenmann AG from Ulrich Jost on 1 April 2020. Brand wants to further expand the advantageous market position he has built up over the past few years and lead the company forward in the wake of digitalisation.

It is anything but a matter of course that Mathias Brand was able to take over the management of Kilchenmann AG on time on 1 April 2020, as previously communicated and planned: On the one hand, the 47-year-old worked as Head of Infrastructure at the Swisscom subsidiary cablex until he took office. There, the responsibility for the railway technology in the Ceneri Base Tunnel, a 300 MCHF project that is still ongoing, took up a great deal of his time until the very end and will accompany him until the end of 2020. On the other hand, the outbreak of the Corona crisis has presented Kilchenmann with a variety of challenges: In the newly dawned age of home offices, the experts of Switzerland's leading company for professional audio, video and collaboration solutions are naturally more in demand than ever. The outgoing Managing Director Ulrich Jost has therefore also been highly challenged in operational management until the very end. Now, however, the rolling handover of the business to Brand has come to an end and the baton has been passed.

Digitisation for customers - but also internally
As CEO, Brand is looking forward to bringing new perspectives, structures and processes into the company as an outsider in addition to the proven Kilchenmann DNA: "Kilchenmann is at the spearhead of digitisation. Both externally in the daily work with customers and internally in the alignment of processes to the changed market development." The focus of Kilchenmann's services is changing from project-oriented to customer-oriented service provision as digitalisation advances. Brand is convinced that the service provision process is changing fundamentally: "In the past, the focus was on the individual project, which then had to be implemented in the best possible technical way. Today, our customers are primarily looking for partners who understand their diverse challenges and, based on this, can demonstrate customised solutions for all phases of the lifecycle of their infrastructures." This is where Kilchenmann will be challenged in the future, but this is also where the Kehrsatz-based company sees immense potential for the future.

Expansion abroad is well prepared
The outgoing CEO Jost, who has led Kilchenmann AG since 2010, will retain only his function as a member of the board of directors. However, he has withdrawn completely from day-to-day business. Although the business handover may seem unfavourable in the current environment, it seems optimal to him due to the long-term planning: "On the one hand, we have found the best possible successor in Mathias Brand, who will now be a dedicated entrepreneur. He brings a wealth of corporate and key account experience to Kilchenmann as an SME. Secondly, Kilchenmann is ideally equipped for the future: The company has consistently achieved new turnover records in recent years." With its own subsidiary in Germany and the connection to international partner networks, Kilchenmann has also laid the foundation for becoming successful on a global level.