Wera Hotz Kowner and Franz K. von Meyenburg honoured at ETH Day
During ETH Day on 18 November 2023, ETH Zurich appointed Wera Hotz Kowner and Franz K. von Meyenburg as Honorary Councillors. The title of Honorary Councillor recognises individuals who support major academic endeavours or fields of work at ETH or else support the university as a whole. The new Honorary Councillors have also been supporting ETH Zurich for many years through the ETH Foundation. Congratulations!
© ETH Zürich / Alessandro Della Bella
© ETH Zürich / Alessandro Della Bella
Wera Hotz Kowner
Former General Manager of Jakob Kowner AG
for her exemplary pioneering spirit and her tireless commitment to the promotion of prospective and practising engineers.
Wera Hotz Kowner studied electrical engineering and information technology as well as business administration at ETH Zurich from 1959 to 1963, including internships at BBC (now ABB) in Baden and CEM in Paris. She then worked for two years in New York and was involved in the electrification of the famous Lincoln Centre. On her return to Switzerland, she initially became Managing Director of Kowner Schalttafel- und Apparatebau AG and from 1970 took over the general management of the company, which she expanded to four sites with up to 200 employees. Wera Hotz Kowner served for many years on the boards of the Gesellschaft der Ingenieure der Industrie, the SIA Zurich Section (1981-1986 as President), the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW) and the Swiss Management Association (SMG). In 2018, Wera Hotz Kowner successfully handed over Jakob Kowner AG to her daughter.
Franz K. von Meyenburg
President of the Wilhelm Schulthess Foundation / Clinic
for his visionary promotion of Zurich as a university and clinic hub and for strengthening the interplay between medicine and technology in the service of society.
Franz K. von Meyenburg studied business administration at the HSG. He then worked for Schweizerische Kreditanstalt for 25 years, from 1992 as General Manager for Capital Markets Switzerland and International, and from 1996-1999 as Member of the Executive Board and Co-Head Investment and Corporate Banking Europe. In 1999 he joined Bank Sarasin as a partner and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the subsidiaries in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Paris. Following the sale of the bank, he took on various board mandates, including Vice Chairman of AXA Switzerland (2007-2019), and founded an asset management company with two partners in 2008. Franz K. von Meyenburg became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wilhelm Schulthess Foundation / Clinic in 1996, became Vice Chairman in 2001 and has been Chairman since 2009.
