Ruag’s Board of Directors has appointed Philipp Berner as the new CEO of Ruag Aviation and a member of the Executive Board of Ruag Holding Ltd, effective 1 December 2010.
As the post-merger integration of Ruag Space is now at an advanced stage, Dr Peter Guggenbach has decided to hand over part of his dual mandate as CEO of Ruag Aviation and Ruag Space to Philipp Berner, who is currently Head of the Military Aviation Business Unit and a member of management of Ruag Aviation.

Dr Guggenbach’s main focus is on ensuring that Ruag’s strategically important Space division is positioned successfully on the international space market.

As the post-merger integration of the Ruag Space division, founded in 2009, is now at an advanced stage and the associated decoupling of the two Aviation and Space divisions from the former Ruag Aerospace unit has been successfully completed, Dr Peter Guggenbach, who is currently CEO of both Ruag Aviation and Ruag Space, has decided to hand over his mandate as CEO of Ruag Aviation to Philipp Berner, Head of the Military Aviation Business Unit and a member of management of Ruag Aviation. The handover will take place on 1 December 2010. In future, as CEO of Ruag Space, Dr Guggenbach and his team will continue to focus on enhancing the division’s position on the international space market.

"I am very pleased to be able to hand over the management of Ruag Aviation to my experienced colleague Philipp Berner. He is closely acquainted with the needs of customers, the market and our employees and can therefore drive forward the successful internationalization of the unit," says Dr Peter Guggenbach, CEO of Ruag Aviation and Ruag Space. "Ruag Space is already on board each European space mission. Our aim now is to focus our full attention on developing additional markets."

Philipp Berner is an economist who studied at the University of St. Gallen. He has been a member of management of Ruag Aerospace for seven years, and has worked at Ruag Aviation since 2009. In 2006, he became Head of the Military Aviation Business Unit (main customer: Swiss Air Force) with around 1400 employees in Switzerland, Germany and the USA. He has expanded the unit’s international business in selected markets abroad and established a global sales organization. Philipp Berner began his career as director of a company for lightweight structures and mechanisms for the aerospace industry.