EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022: These are the winners

"This year, four of these personalities come from the canton of St. Gallen, sending a strong signal for Eastern Switzerland as a business location, says Sascha Stahl, Program Partner of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Switzerland. "Western Switzerland is represented by a particularly innovative company among the winners and clearly demonstrates the positive impact EPFL has on the entire Lake Geneva region," says Frédéric Tisssot, Director Entrepreneurship & Family Enterprise Suisse romande at EY. A ten-member jury was responsible for evaluating the finalists and awarding the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 Award; they reviewed the candidates independently of EY. This year's five award winners are:

Andreas Wälti, Evatec AG, Trübbach (SG) in the "Industry, High-Tech & Life Sciences" category 

Evatec was founded in 2004 as a result of a management buyout of the former Unaxis, which in turn had emerged from the Balzers equipment manufacturing company founded in 1946. Andreas Wälti and Marco Padrun turned the conglomerate into a global innovation leader for process solutions and mechanical engineering for thin films. These layers are so thin that they are in the nano range and are used in semiconductor technology, precision optics and optoelectronics. "Andreas Wälti impressed with his irrepressible entrepreneurial strength, with which he has made his company indispensable on global markets as a Swiss high-tech brand," was the jury's tribute.

Carsten Koerl, Sportradar AG, St. Gallen (SG) in the "Service & Trade" category 

As an engineer at the University of Konstanz, Carsten Koerl is passionately interested in the use of data for successful forecasting, which results in two startups. Matured by experience, he founded Sportradar AG with a partner in 2001 because he noticed that everyone in sports wanted accurate data and no one could provide it. Since then, he has been collecting sports data in real time for sports clubs, media companies, bookmakers and sports organizations. The company employs 3,000 people in over 20 countries and is going public with an IPO on NASDAQ in 2021. "With Carsten Koerl, a passionate person wins in the category "Service & Commerce", who has created a business empire out of a niche, which has received far too little attention for a long time," says Sascha Stahl, EY Program Partner.

Franziska Tschudi Sauber and Daniel Tschudi, Weidmann Holding AG, Rapperswil- Jona (SG) in the "Family Business" category 

In 2001, Franziska Tschudi Sauber and her brother Daniel Tschudi took over the heritage of the extremely traditional Weidmann Holding in Rapperswil-Jona as the 5th generation. The company is the world market leader for electrical insulation of transformers and specializes in high-quality plastic components for medical and pharmaceutical technology. With 2,700 employees at 30 locations around the globe, the Weidmann Group is one of the few industrial groups to maintain its market dominance internationally. "Franziska Tschudi Sauber and her brother Daniel Tschudi stand for a lived family tradition that maintains and develops the Swiss pioneering spirit in the industry" says Sascha Stahl.

Yann Cotte, Nanolive SA, Tolochenaz (VD) in the "Emerging Entrepreneurs" category 

Yann Cotte and Fatih Toy founded Nanolive in 2013 at the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne with the idea of revolutionizing the cell research industry. Today, Nanolive offers a globally unique technology to observe living cells in 3D without destructive dyes, which is enormously valuable for research. The technology, which is exported to 95% worldwide, is modularly scalable for hardware and software, promising great future potential. The jury recognizes Yann Cotte as a visionary in the high-tech medical field, but one who knows how to implement a promising business model. "Yann Cotte is a real revolutionary in his field and his success clearly shows how positively the Lake Geneva region around EPFL is developing," says Frédéric Tissot, Director Entrepreneurship & Family Enterprise Suisse romande at EY.

Stefan Rösch-Rütsche, Country Managing Partner of EY in Switzerland, comments: "Every year for a quarter of a century, we at EY have had the privilege of selecting the winners in the four EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ categories from a wide range of high-caliber finalists. This year, the winners' impressive entrepreneurial achievements demonstrate that innovation and success are everywhere in our country."

This year's award ceremony took place on October 28 as part of a gala at "The Hall" event hall in Dübendorf. Around 400 invited guests attended the festive event. Additional spectators and employees from the competing companies were connected via a live stream.

EY in Switzerland was supported in the 2022 Entrepreneur Of The Year program by Credit Suisse as program partner and AMAG, Bucherer, SWISS and HDI as sponsors.