Management
Alessandra Hool
Alessandra Hool (MSc, MAS) studied philosophy and history of science and project management at the Universities of Bern, Switzerland, and Salford, UK, as well as International Law and Economics at the World Trade Institute (WTI) of the University of Bern. She worked as a project manager for various European and Swiss research and development projects, in which she was particularly responsible for the development, collaboration, and dissemination of new R&D areas through interdisciplinary events and the promotion of new partnerships. Alessa has been working for the ESM since 2013 and has been the foundation’s managing director since April 2017. In this function, she develops and coordinates national and international projects and partnerships on the subject of critical raw materials and a more sustainable use of them.
Evelyne Hürlimann
Evelyne Hürlimann leads the administrative and organizational matters of the ESM Foundation. She has many years of experience as head of administration, project controller, with the design of work processes according to quality standards, as well as in the area of customer care. In addition to a commercial school degree and further language training, she has completed advanced management training and obtained a controller’s certificate. Ms. Hürlimann had the overall responsibility for setting up and managing the administration of a new service company. She was also significantly involved in setting up a Request Management Center (RMC) and was in charge of it.
Communication
Nicole Horner
Nicole Horner is in her fourth semester studying law at the University of Bern. In addition, she works part-time for the ESM Foundation as a communications assistant. Besides providing technical, conceptual, and content-related support for the website and social media profiles of the IRTC project, she assists in organizing events and communicating with project partners, as well as researching current topics in the field of critical raw materials.
Financial Advisor
Reto Fehr
Reto Fehr has over 30 years experience in securities trading and wealth management with different institutions. He developed and managed holistic financial planning activities within Credit Suisse in Zurich (1995–2010), covering the areas of Financial, Tax and Estate Planning, Mortgage and Real Estate Management, and Business Succession Planning, last as Managing Director. Since 2011, Reto Fehr is an independent wealth manager for private clients, since 2017 at Avalor Investment AG in Zurich.
Board
Dr. Ernst Lutz (President)
Ernst Lutz has devoted most of his career to industrial innovation and technology management. Under his responsibility and leadership, Alcan Engineered Products developed and implemented an innovation management system and framework for a leading customer-based innovation partnership. He also worked on technology roadmapping and the strategic alignment of product portfolios. Ernst Lutz studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, where he also received his doctorate; in addition, he pursued a master’s degree in business administration. Dr. Lutz worked for 16 years in the metals and mining industry (alusuisse, Alcan, RioTino), where he held various positions in technology management.
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He spent long periods in Switzerland, Japan, Canada, France and China. In 2011 he moved from Shanghai to Winterthur to take on group-wide responsibilities as Chief Technology Officer and member of the Sulzer Management Board. During this time, he globally restructured the engineering of the Pumps division at Sulzer to create a clear focus on customer needs combined with excellence in execution. In 2015 Dr. Lutz was appointed CEO of EIT Raw Materials in Berlin by the EU Commission. In this role, he was responsible for building up and leading the largest global consortium in the raw materials (rare earth) space with the aim of making rare earth a European strength. In 2016 Dr. Lutz joined Grundfos, a global manufacturer of pumps based in Bjerringbro, Denmark, as a member of the executive board. In July 2023, as a member of the Executive Board, he assumed responsibility for Technology & Innovation at Bekaert, a Belgian group in metal processing.
Dr. Patrick Wäger (Vice President)
Dr. Patrick Wäger is the Head of Laboratory at the Technology & Society Laboratory at Empa. He studied organic, bio-organic and analytical chemistry at ETH Zurich, where he also received his PhD. Patrick’s research interests are circular economy, critical raw materials, emerging technologies, societal metabolism, and sustainability transitions. Amongst others, he is leading work package 2 of the EU H2020 project “Prospecting Secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine and Mining Wastes” (ProSUM).
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Patrick is Swiss National Delegate and Management Committee member of the COST Action “Mining the European Anthroposphere” (MINEA), member of the steering group “Sustainable use of limited resources” of the Swiss Academies of Science, member of the managing board of the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (saguf) and Chair of its working group “Integrative Research on Natural Resources”.
Prof. Dr. Armin Reller
Armin Reller, former professor for Solid State Chemistry at the Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, held the position of a professor for Resource Strategy at the same institution. Additionally, he served as Chairman of the Environmental Science Center (ESC) and was a member of the board of the AMU (Application Center for Materials and Science). He also chaired the Graduate School “Resource Strategy Concepts for Sustainable Energy Systems” at the University of Augsburg, Germany. His research focused on the synthesis and properties of functional materials relevant for energy and environment technologies.
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He paid specific attention to ecological and socio-economic impacts of exploring and applying strategic resources. He served as an Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Progress in Solid State Chemistry (Elsevier). On January 1st, 2009, he was appointed as full professor for Resource Strategy at the University of Augsburg. Armin is one of the founding members and served as chairman for resource strategy of the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS (Alzenau and Hanau), established in 2011. Furthermore, he was appointed as an expert of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences and became a member of the Raw Materials Council of the Umweltbundesamt in Berlin.
Dr. Hans-Jörg Althaus
Hans-Jörg Althaus has a doctorate in environmental science and a degree in materials science, both from the ETH Zurich. His experience as an expert in life cycle assessment (LCA) and handling natural resources ranges from basic and applied interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research to business and policy advice. In his research projects, Hans-Jörg mainly deals with metal production, sustainable buildings, renewable energy generation and (electrical) transport.
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Hans-Jörg also supports companies and public authorities in developing strategies aimed at mitigation of GHG emissions and energy conservation. From 1999 to 2013, Hans-Jörg worked at Empa, a public research institute of the ETH, in the field of environmental sciences, focusing on LCA. As a founding member of the Ecoinvent expert group, he was mainly responsible for Empa’s activities in the development of the Ecoinvent database. In addition to academic research, Hans-Jörg has worked on many LCA projects for commercial products or companies. In 2014, Hans-Jörg took on the development of a “resource strategy”, i.e., a collection of the status and development of the use of all relevant natural resources (from land, water and biodiversity to clean air and a stable climate), including strategies for future sustainable use thereof. After the publication of the resource strategy, Hans-Jörg left Swisscleantech and founded LifeCycle Consulting Althaus, where he carried out research projects for the private and public sector. In 2016 he joined INFRAS as a Partner and expert on LCA and environmental aspects of transport. Since 2023 Hans-Jörg is working as a self employed expert again.
Dr. Andreas Blatter
Andreas Blatter earned his PhD in physics at the University of Bern. For the next 8 years he directed a research group at the Institute of Applied Physics, focusing on non-equilibrium laser processing, thin film technology and metallic glasses. After his habilitation and a sabbatical year at the IBM Almaden Research Center, he changed from academic to industrial research. For almost 20 years, Andreas has been the Director of R&D at PX Group, a main supplier of metal products for watch industry and medical devices. Accordingly, his main interests cover precious metals and specialty alloys, related technologies, as well as aspects of corrosion and biocompatibility.
Dr. Luis Tercero Espinoza
Luis Tercero Espinoza studied Chemical Engineering in Nicaragua (University of Mobile, Latin American Branch Campus/San Marcos) and USA (Christian Brothers University/TN, with a sabbatical at Clemson University/SC). Together with his Bachelor of Science, he received the “2000 Outstanding School of Engineering Graduate Award” from Christian Brothers University. Luis then went on to do his Master Degree in Chemical Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison (until 2003), where he submitted his thesis on the detection of pathogenic viruses by means of nanostructured surfaces and liquid crystals. He did his PhD at the Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, earning the certificate of Dr.-Ing. with Honors in 2010.
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For his doctoral thesis in the field of oxidative water treatment by means of heterogenous photocatalysis, he received the “Ron Malcolm Award” of the International Humic Substances Society in 2008, and was second in the youth competition “Understanding Science” for scientific communication (2008, UFZ Leipzig). Since 2009, Luis has been a Research Associate and Project Manager at the Competence Center Nachhaltigkeit und Infrastruktursysteme of the Fraunhofer ISI, where in 2011 he took the leading management position of the department “Systemic Risks” with a focus on materials supply. Since 2015, Luis has also been coordinating the newly established field “Material and Resources” (www.isi.fraunhofer.de/rohstoffe) of the Fraunhofer ISI. His thematic focus is on supply reliability and resources policy, dynamic material flow modelling, nexus technology and raw material requirements.
Angelina Rau
Angelina Rau (fed. dipl. VFL, BSc., MLaw, PhD Biomedical and Ethics (cand.), MME (cand.)) is a qualified lawyer specialized in regulated markets and legal matters related to the development and commercialization of innovative technologies in the fields of pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, healthcare and chemistry. Prior to her secondary education as a lawyer, she gained several years of professional experience in the industry (international commodity trading, international production and trading company white goods, chemicals). As a former CEO and current board member of an umbrella organization for innovation in healthcare, she is involved as mentor and speaker on dedicated topics in life sciences. Additionally, she is editor-in-chief, board member and founder and regularly publishes on topics in her field.
Past Board Members, Chairmen and CEOs
- Mr. Gaston Dubois, Saint-Légier sur Vevey, Founding Member of the Board
- Prof. Dr. O.H.C. Messner, Zurich, Founding Chairman and President
- Prof. E. Baumann, Zurich, Founding Member of the Board
- Dr. O. Zipfel, Bern, Founding Board Member of the Board
- Mr. Peter Sulzer, Member of the Board
- Mr. Fritz Hummler, Member of the Board
- Mr. Eduard Fleissig, Member of the Board
- Prof. Dr. Hans Böhni, Zürich, Chairman and President (1990-2004)
- Dr. Christoph Ramstein, Zürich, Member of the Board
- Prof. Dr. Ulrich W. Suter, Oberentfelden, Member of the Board
- Mr. Christopher Wasserman, Ecublens, Member of the Board
- Dr. Brigitte Buchmann, Kaiserstuhl, Member of the Board (2015-2017)
- Dr. Bruno Walser, Winterthur, Member of the Board 1988-1991, Chairman and President (2004-2017)
- Dr. Margarethe Hofmann, Pully, CEO (1989-2017)
- Dr. Denis Gonseth, Founex, Member of the Board (1974-2017)
- Dr. Christian Hagelüken, Hanau (D), Member of the Board (2012-2019)
- Dr. Stefan Kohler, Member of the Board (2001-2024)
