A bang for the buck at Serviceplan: Christian Baertschi leaves
Christian Baertschi is leaving the Serviceplan Group Switzerland at the end of May. Together with Steve Walls, his former Transformation Lead and Chief Strategy Officer, he is starting his own business. Baertschi is stepping down as chairman of the board and relinquishing his shares, though he plans to continue managing some key accounts.
Leaving the House of Communication: Christian Baertschi goes new ways.
After more than seven years of building Serviceplan into a leading agency group in the Swiss market, Christian Baertschi is deciding on a new direction. At the end of May 2020, he will step down as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Serviceplan Group Switzerland, resign from all boards of directors and divest his shareholdings in the individual companies. The next step for Baertschi is the founding of a company - so far "nameless" - which he would like to launch together with his former Transformation Lead and Head of Strategy Steve Walls.
Markus Noder, CEO of Serviceplan International, will now directly chair the Board of Directors of Serviceplan Group Switzerland, but will not perform any operational tasks in Switzerland. Spokesperson for the House of Communication will now be Pam Hügli, who as CEO of Serviceplan Suisse heads the largest agency in the House of Communication. In addition, Gaël Fuchs, CFO of the Swiss Group, will become a new member of the Board of Directors for all companies.
Serviceplan Group Switzerland emerged from Baertschi's agency
Christian Baertschi sold shares in his company to the international Serviceplan Group in 2012, thus establishing the entry of the partner-led agency group with German roots in the Swiss market. He started with ten employees and in seven years built up the agency group in Switzerland, which today comprises around 130 employees in several companies and operates on the market with the Serviceplan, Plan.Net and Mediaplus brands.
During this time, the Swiss group of companies in the Haus der Kommunikation Zurich developed communication solutions under his leadership for national and international clients such as ABB, BMW, Credit Suisse, Migros Industrie, Swisscom and many others. Among numerous other projects, the Café Royal brand was built up by Migros international in seven foreign markets and the successful entry of ABB as global title sponsor of Formula E was implemented. Both projects received awards at the Euro Effies due to their commercial international success.
For seven years, he headed the agencies of the Swiss Group and the House of Communication in Zurich as Group CEO. It was only in December 2019 that he took over as Chairman of the Board of Serviceplan Group Switzerland and handed over operational management to the CEOs of the individual agencies.
In December, Christian Baertschi (right) became Chairman of the Board of Serviceplan - here with the departing Peter Felser and the two Serviceplan partners Pam Hügli and Raul Serrat (from left).
"We will remain on friendly terms with him".
Markus Noder, the designated Chairman of the Board of Directors, regrets Baertschi's departure, but is conciliatory: "We respect Christian Baertschi's decision to continue his development outside the Serviceplan Group. At the same time, we thank him for the work he has done to build up the company and will remain on friendly terms in any case. We have a strong team at the helm in the Haus der Kommunikation Zurich, with Pam Hügli as CEO and Raul Serrat as creative director, among others, who have successively taken over from Serviceplan and will ensure the necessary continuity."
