Ton Büchner
Major Career Roles
- Chair/CEO, AkzoNobel NV
- CEO, Sulzer AF
- Chair, Swiss Prime Site AG
- Independent Director, Novartis AG
- Chair, Burckhardt Compression
Other Career Highlights
- Board member, Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA
- Project Manager, RJ Brown and Associates Inc. and Allseas Engineering BV
- Adviser, Partners Group for Ammega
Ton Büchner has significant international seniorleadership experience across sectors including capital goods and services, speciality chemicals, healthcare and oil and gas, with applied experience in digital transformations, sustainability and artificial-intelligence sectors.
Ton is Chair of Swiss Prime Site AG and Burckhardt Compression Holdings AG. He is an Independent Director of Novartis AG, where he is also Risk Committee Chair, and a member of the Audit Committee. He is also an Adviser to Ammega and a member of the Executive Faculty, University of St Gallen, Executive School of Management.
Ton spent 10 years in CEO roles within two global companies, quoted on two different stock exchanges, in two countries, with two jurisdictions and corporate governance structures (Switzerland and the Netherlands).
Ton was CEO and Chair of AkzoNobel NV in the Netherlands from 2012 to 2017, where he realigned the portfolio, operationally improved the corporation, completed several acquisitions and implemented organisational, people, culture and process changes. Prior to joining AkzoNobel, he was the CEO of Sulzer in Switzerland from 2007 to 2011, where he organically grew the corporation, and also completed and integrated 16 acquisitions. Ton began his professional career in the oil and gas industry as an offshore construction engineer.
Ton has extensive and broad global generalmanagement experience obtained in the areas of vision, mission, purpose and strategy development, strategy execution, mergers and acquisitions, integration of acquisitions, divisional management, project management, front-end sales assignments and hands-on restructuring.