Geri Aebi new president of BSW
At the 79th General Meeting on May 16, 2014, there will be a change in leadership at the BSW. Nadine Borter, owner of Contexta, will hand over the presidency to Geri Aebi, CEO and co-owner of the Wirz Group, as planned after two years.
As a creative with a background in business administration, the new BSW President brings with him many years of entrepreneurial experience to continue positioning and profiling the industry association as a quality label for effective communication in economically challenging times, according to a statement from the association on Friday.
Geri Aebi announced to the almost full attendance of members that he would primarily continue the successful work of his predecessor. He defined his strategic priorities as, among other things, the claim to leadership as a representative of the profession on important issues, emphasizing the investment security of leading swiss agencies for clients, advocating fair and transparent remuneration that respects the value of ideas and their use, and promoting training and further education for the industry. Last but not least, he sees the SWA, the advertising client association, as an important partner for the agencies, with whom more "common cause" could be made in the mutual endeavor for effective and efficient communication.
As the previous President Nadine Borter explained in her opening speech, BSW can look back on a challenging and eventful year. New technologies that entail new communication formats, a fast-moving market with challenging competitive conditions and a changing political environment present agencies with a multitude of tasks that need to be successfully mastered. According to Borter, it is undisputed that developing attractive and effective advertising is not a matter of course, but requires great skill and corresponding experience. It is precisely this expertise that can be found primarily at BSW agencies, as their very high proportion among the winners of a Swiss EFFIE Award 2014 showed once again.
To warm applause, Christof Kaufmann of Aegis Media and Urs Schneider of Mediaschneider were dismissed from the BSW Board. At the same time, Roman Hirsbrunner, CEO of Jung von Matt/Limmat, was welcomed as the new Vice Chairman and Manfred Strobl, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Switzerland, as a new member of the Board.
