Dr. Ulrich Stoll​

Positioning the foundation as an international professional authority

Dr Ulrich Stoll has been a board member of the non-profit foundation since 2019. He has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Festo SE & Co. KG since 2007 and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board since 2010. Festo SE & Co. KG is a group of control and automation technology companies headquartered in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Dr Stoll studied at the University of St. Gallen, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School. After completing his doctorate in economics at the University of St. Gallen in 2003, Dr Stoll worked for a strategy consultancy. He then moved to the United States, where he worked as Director Strategic Initiatives for the technology company Biogen Idec in Boston, where he was particularly instrumental in developing the company’s Asian business.

Dr Stoll, who himself comes from a family of entrepreneurs, knows the challenges that family businesses face in Germany and Europe: “Supporting this type of company is a matter close to my heart. A good nine out of ten private companies in Germany are family businesses. They are the backbone of the German economy and we would be much poorer without them. It is therefore important that they are heard in politics and society and have a seat at the table when economic and political decisions are made. I view one of my duties as positioning the foundation nationally and, step by step, internationally as a leading professional authority in the field of family businesses.”