Swatch Group proposes member for board of directors

In an ad-hoc announcement, Swatch has proposed appointing Andreas Rickenbacher as a new member of the Board of Directors at the next Annual General Meeting on May 12, 2026.

This proposal is in line with the aim of strengthening the Swatch Group's corporate governance and benefiting from the additional expertise within its Board of Directors, the statement said.

Andreas Rickenbacher, a Swiss national, is a business economist and served as a member of the Bern cantonal government from 2006 to 2016. Prior to that, he worked as an entrepreneur and consultant. Since 2016, after more than 20 years in politics, he has been an entrepreneur and an independent member of boards of directors in the private sector.

This proposal is worth mentioning in the context of Events surrounding the board of directors last year. At the Swatch Group's Annual General Meeting of shareholders on May 21, Steven Wood, whose investment company Greenwood Investors holds 0.5 percent of the listed Swatch Group, ran for a seat as a representative of the owner shareholders on the Board of Directors.

Following the meeting, the Swatch Group announced that Wood had been rejected with 79.2 percent of the votes against him. Steven Wood subsequently claimed that the election process had not been conducted properly. The Swatch Group emphatically denied this: "That is false," the company stated on its website.

According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), the Swatch Group is now yielding to investor pressure. This comes on top of weak business figures for 2025. These figures, along with the demand for a complete overhaul of the board of directors, are making shareholders nervous, the Swiss newspaper reports. "This is evidenced by the low approval rate of 55.7 percent for the discharge of the board of directors and management at the last AGM."„

Furthermore, Wood continues to demand stronger representation of the owner shareholders on the board of directors and "that the majority of the board is independent – neither belonging to the Hayek pool nor operationally active or remaining in office for more than twelve years."„

According to the NZZ, the Swatch Group is currently firmly in the hands of the Hayek family: "Nayla, Nick and Marc Hayek lead the group as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, CEO and Head of the Luxury Segment. Together with confidants, they control 44 percent of the voting rights."„

„"The election of Rickenbacher, who is to become the eighth member of the board of directors, would be a step in the direction demanded by Wood," says the NZZ.

He did not want to talk about his solutions to the problems of the Swatch Group, saying that it was "still a bit too early and would be presumptuous," the Bernese daily newspaper "Der Bund" quoted him as saying.