Andréa M. Maechler and Walter Fust honoured at ETH Day
ETH Zurich appointed Andréa M. Maechler and Walter Fust as Honorary Councillors during ETH Day on 16 November 2024. 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.
© ETH Zurich / Alessandro Della Bella
© ETH Zurich / Alessandro Della Bella
Dr Andréa M. Maechler
Deputy General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
for her great commitment to promoting technology transfer to the economy, particularly in the field of Computer Science, and for her role as a role model for women in management positions.
Andréa M. Maechler studied at the University of Toronto and the Graduate Institute (formerly IUHEI) in Geneva and received her doctorate in International Economics from the University of California in 2000. Her professional experience includes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). From 2015 to 2023, she was a member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and responsible for Department III, Money Market and Foreign Exchange, Asset Management, Banking Operations and Computer Science. Andréa M. Maechler has been Deputy General Manager of the BIS in Basel since September 2023.
Dipl. Ing. Walter Fust
Founder of Dipl. Ing. Fust AG, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the StarragTornos Group
for his pioneering spirit, his entrepreneurial achievements, his role model function and his great commitment to students with entrepreneurial ambitions.
Dipl. Ing. Walter Fust completed his studies in mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich in 1964. He was already running a mail-order business during his studies. From 1966, he built up Dipl. Ing. Fust AG, a major electrical retail company, which he sold to the Coop Group in 2007. From the end of the 1980s, he was the majority shareholder and later Chairman of the Board of Directors of the mechanical engineering company Starrag (now StarragTornos) for many years, acquired stakes in other companies and was active in the property sector. He is a co-founder of Inspire, the technology transfer centre set up on the initiative of ETH Zurich and Swiss industry.
