Chairman

Henning Boysen has been a member of Kuoni’s Board of Directors since 2003. In 2006, the Board elected Mr. Boysen, a Dane, to be its chairman.


After studying economics, Henning Boysen began his career as a management consultant at Booz, Allan & Hamilton.

In 1975 he joined SAS Service Partner as a project manager before going on to the posts of Chief Financial Officer and then Executive Vice-President Catering. After stints as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Saudia Catering and President of Aero-Chef A/S, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Gate Gourmet International from 1996 to 2004, and as Deputy Chairman from 2004 to 2005.


During this period as Chairman and CEO, Gate Gourmet grew from a medium sized European company to become a global player. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Global Refund Group, Nyon; Chairman of the Board of Directors of APODAN NORDIC AS, Copenhagen; Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Postgraduate Education, Copenhagen Business School; Member of the Board of Directors of Transcom Worldwide SA, Luxembourg; Member of the Advisory Board of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), Lausanne.

Current term expires in 2012.

Vice-Chairman

Tourism specialist and industrial economist Wolfgang Beeser, a German national, served as CEO of Thomas Cook AG from January 2004 to the end of 2005, and can draw on 40 years of experience in the tourism sector. He embarked on his tourism career with Neckermann Reisen in 1967.

Ten years later he assumed responsibility for Neckermann’s global procurement of hotel capacities. In 1994 he was named CEO of the company, now renamed NUR Touristic. From 1997 to 1999 he headed the Thomas Cook Group, which was then still known as C & N Touristic, as a Member of Executive Management.

He was elected to the Kuoni Board of Directors in 2002, but stepped down at the end of 2003 after being appointed CEO of Thomas Cook AG. He then returned to Kuoni’s Board in 2007 as its Vice-Chairman. Chairman of the Board of Directors of DAMARE S.L.R., Milan; Member of the Board of Directors of Iberostar Holding, Palma de Mallorca.

Current term expires in 2013.

Heinz Karrer, a Swiss national, has been CEO of Axpo Holding AG, Switzerland’s leading energy company, since 2002. After studying economics at St. Gallen University (HSG), he began his career in 1985 when he was appointed general manager of the Association of Swiss Manufacturers, Suppliers and Agents for Sports Goods.

He went on to serve as managing director of Intersport Schweiz AG from 1987 to 1992 and as CEO of Intersport Holding AG from 1992 to 1995. He then moved to the Ringier publishing house where he remained until 1997, becoming CEO of Ringier Switzerland and a member of Ringier Ltd.’s Group Executive Management.

From 1998 to 2002 he was a member of Swisscom’s Group Executive Management and head of the group’s marketing & sales division. He has served on Kuoni’s Board of Directors since 2007. CEO of Axpo Holding AG, Baden; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft Laufenburg AG, Dietikon; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Axpo AG, Baden; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG, Lucerne; Member of the Board of Directors of Resun AG, Aarau; Member of the Board of Directors of Swissgrid AG, Laufenburg.

Current term expires in 2014.

John Lindquist, a US and UK citizen, is resident in London. He gained a degree in economics from Princeton University and MBA from Harvard University and then joined The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a consultant.

He was subsequently elected a Partner and later a Senior Partner and Managing Director, where he served on the global leadership team of the travel and tourism practice.

He is currently a Senior Adviser with BCG, advising on strategy for clients in airlines, hotels, and government tourism bodies on a global basis. He joined Kuoni’s Board of Directors in 2007. He is also a Board Director of VisitBritain, the UK government tourism promotion agency. Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group, London; Member of the Board of Directors of VisitBritain, London.

Current term expires in 2014.

Kuoni’s Board of Directors has benefited from the great expertise and experience of Swiss business administration graduate David Schnell since 2002. Between 1985 and 1997 he worked at ELCO Looser Holding AG, initially as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Member of the Executive Board, and later as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Member of the Board of Directors. In 1997 David Schnell moved to become CFO and Member of the Executive Board of telecommunications company Swisscom AG in Bern, where he stayed until 2002. Since 2002 David Schnell has been an independent business consultant and a Member of the Board of Directors of various companies.

Business Consultant; Member of the Board of Trustees of the Kuoni and Hugentobler-Foundation, Zurich; Chairman of the Board of Directors of IFBC AG, Zurich; Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of ELMA Electronic AG, Wetzikon; Member of the Board of Directors of AlpTransit Gotthard AG, Lucerne; Member of the Board of Directors of Kardex AG, Zurich; Member of the Sanction Commission of the SIX Swiss Exchange AG, Zurich. Current term expires in 2012.

Annette Schömmel - Swiss and German citizen – is an successful entrepreneur. She received a degree in Economics from Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg and a Master from University of the Arts, Berlin. She is a Stanford Business School Graduate. After working in various management positions in the creative industry she founded arthesia - an applied think tank based in Zurich and Los Angeles - in 1994. Annette Schömmel is an recognized expert on strategy, transformation and change programms as well as long term positioning.
She has joined the Kuoni board in 2004.


Founder and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of arthesia AG, Zurich and Los Angeles; Managing Director of arthesia AG, Zurich and Los Angeles.

Current term expires in 2013.

Raymond D. Webster, who is a citizen of New Zealand and resident in the United Kingdom, joined Kuoni’s Board of Directors in 2006. He worked for easyJet airline plc. from 1996 to 2005 – from 2000 as Chief Executive Officer.

Before that he was with Air New Zealand in various functions, the last one being General Manager, Strategic Planning. He studied engineering at Canterbury University in New Zealand and obtained an MSc in Air Transport Engineering from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in the UK, as well as a Master of Business Management from Stanford Business School in the USA.

Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (MIEE), London; Member of the Board of Directors of Pegasus Airlines, Istanbul; Member of the Advisory Board of the Stanford Sloan Master’s Programme, California; Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeSoc), London.

Current term expires in 2013.