Willy Michel spent his childhood in Burgdorf, Switzerland as the son of a railway shunting master. He was a chemical laboratory assistant at Ciba-Geigy in Basel. He then gained extensive experience in the areas of development, field service and marketing at various industrial and pharmaceutical companies.
Today he amasses fortunes after acquiring a large Success in the medical, art and gastronomy industriesamong others. Find out all about it below.
The story of Willy Michel, one of the richest men in Switzerland
From 1978 to 1984 he headed Novo Nordisk Switzerland. That same year He founded Disetronic AG together with his brother PeterIn 1996, it successfully went public, after which it sold a part to Roche in 2003. At the same time, it bought back the injection systems division, founded the current Ypsomed from it and took it public in 2004.
Since its inception, it has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the former Disetronic Group and currently of the Ypsomed Group, of which he is also the chief executive officer (CEO).
From 1998 to 2001 he was a member of the Burgdorf municipal council as a non-partisan liberal member and was responsible for the police and traffic department. He is also known for his patronage. For example, he donated the Franz Gertsch Museum in Burgdorf to the artist Franz Gertsch and is involved with his Willy Michel Foundation.
Michel owns several businesses, including art, watchmaking (Armin Strom) and gastronomy. Until June 2016, Michel was indirectly the main shareholder of the biotechnology company Finox, which he founded in 2007 and was sold to the Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter, through the investment company BV Holding, which it controlled.
He owns several restaurants and hotels.including the Stadthaus in the upper town of Burgdorf. He is Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management of BV Holding AG, its Chairman from 2001 to March 2008. He also serves on various boards of directors.
In 2000, Michel bought the castle of Gümligen in Muri, near Bern.where with his second wife, Katja. He is also owner of the yacht Vive la Vie, almost 60 meters long, and a private jetShe has two sons, Simon and Serge Michel, from her first marriage, and a daughter from another relationship.
How much is Willy Michel’s fortune, according to Forbes
The business magazine Bilanz estimated Michel and his family’s assets at between CHF 2 billion and CHF 2.5 billion in 2021. Today Michel’s net worth is $5.3 billion.
Source: Ambito
