Local.ch and Search.ch: Edi Bähler becomes CEO

The current CEO of Local.ch will take over the management of the joint company at the time of the legal completion of the merger, which is scheduled for mid-2015. In the past four years, Bähler has led a successful transformation process at Local.ch from a former telephone directory provider to a leading digital services company, according to a statement. He will continue on the same path with the two brands local.ch and Search.ch. Urs Hügli, acting CEO of Search.ch, will continue to be available to the new company in an advisory capacity.

Edi Bähler, 53, from Berne, graduated in engineering from ETH Zurich, and earned an MBA from the University of St. Gallen. Bähler was Head of IT and later Head of Marketing & Sales at Mikron, Biel. He then spent four years as CEO at Hofstetter Umwelttechnik before moving to Swisscom Mobile. After building up the marketing department, he took over commercial responsibility for Swisscom Mobile as a member of the Executive Board. As part of the restructuring of Swisscom (Switzerland)'s residential customer business, he was responsible for the entire product performance design. In this role, he also took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Swisscom Directories. With the merger of Swisscom Directories and LTV Yellow Pages under the joint Local.ch brand, Edi Bähler took over overall management as CEO in November 2010.