Having worked very much in an international arena and lived in various countries, how did the move to Switzerland come about?
Actually my previous employer was the cause for moving to Switzerland.  At the time I was working for BAT (British American Tobacco) and received the opportunity to become a Global Head of HR for one of its business units. After 3 years I have already been living in Switzerland, I was approached by MET that they were looking for a Group HR Director. I felt it was the time to move on to new challenges and accepted the position.

What advice would you offer to someone moving to Switzerland?
If you like beautiful nature, predictability, safe environment and chocolate and food which quality would be difficult to top, then Switzerland will be a country for you to live. As for a tip, I would say come for a pre-visit and look around to see and feel various places. Think about what are the key factors that are important for you to be able to select the best place for your new home where you would feel comfortable. Try to get as much information as possible from various sources; from friends you know who already live here, from publicly available information and then make your choice.

Earlier this year you left British American Tobacco after 10 years’ service to become Group HR Director at MET Group, what appealed to you about joining MET Group?
First and foremost; the people with whom I met. They were exceptional and inspirational. Additionally, the impressive growth and innovative culture of the company. All the time there are new market entries, lots of M&A activities and everyone has the freedom to bring and implement his/her own ideas. The company is also at a very interesting stage coming from a start-up to a medium-sized European company which gives a lot of opportunity to build the business for the future and a professional HR function.

MET Group has undergone huge growth and relocated their HQ’s to Switzerland, how attractive do you feel that Switzerland remains as a location for international businesses?
Switzerland is a very attractive place for international businesses and it is not only based on the ranking of the World Economic Forum on the most competitive countries in the world. My bet is that it will stay like that also in the near future. It has a strong international reputation, as well as infrastructure, good access to financial services, and the values the Swiss uphold in business life. So the country has a predictable regulatory environment which is favourable for companies as it gives reliability. It’s also very supportive from the canton side; Canton Zug particularly gives it’s best to support businesses here which eases the daily operation. There is good access to international top talents as well and it’s an attractive place for people to live. 

Further growth for Met Group is reliant on bringing in top talent, what challenges do you face when recruiting?
Growing into a major company did change life at MET. Today we have colleagues from 28 different countries, coming from a diverse set of corporate environments, so an open, inclusive company culture is self-evident. The company’s continuous growth offers several benefits. A basic principle of any growing company is that the success of somebody else will make other team members successful as well. Successful growth provides ambition and perspective.
Overall, I think we manage to attract top talent to our business, which is crucial for our further growth and successes. The company has only a ten-year history and has gone from a company of 7 people to over 500 in that time. We are competing with big brands like GE, Shell, Glencore, Axpo etc so we need to focus more and more on employer branding activities to keep up with the competition and to keep attracting the best ones.

What attributes do you look for when choosing a recruitment partner?
A recruitment partner needs to understand our business and organisational business needs. And they also need understand the whole commodity sector’s characteristics. We expect them to provide a reliable and discreet service as quickly as possible without compromising on the quality of the candidates. For me, less is more and what I mean is that I would rather see less candidates, but really high quality ones. Our ideal recruitment partner is who does a very good pre-selection and sends us only the top 2-3 candidates.

If you could give advice to an aspirational HR professional starting out in their career, what would that be?
Put most of your efforts into understanding your business and business managers, establish a good working relationship with them and turn your solutions into their needs to be able to support them in achieving their goals. Do your best every day and deliver on your promises. Be very open on your learning journey and therefore for new opportunities. If you combine a positive approach and willingness to learn then these opportunities of progression will come. This is true for every professional not just HR.

Who has inspired you the most in business and why?
Throughout my whole career I was lucky because I have been surrounded by outstanding people who reached both exceptional business results and were great people leaders. There were always role models to look up to or to turn to for advice.  At MET Group it is paired up with an unconventional approach and passion from our business managers who challenge the way that things have always been done which is really amazing and inspirational – that is inspiring me the most at the moment.

It’s an exciting time at the moment within Met Group by the sounds of it, with lots still to achieve, how do you relax outside of work?
Exercise, sleep and spending quality time with my family. If it is about exercise I try to spend time outside the office as much as possible, but going to the gym can keep me balanced too. I used to be a table tennis player too, but it’s been a while since I have participated in my last tournament. So Swiss mountains are rather my best friends nowadays lately.

*Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the Interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment