3. Board of Directors
The BoD is responsible for strategy and organizational development and supervises and controls the operational management. It defines the Group’s business principles and keeps itself regularly informed about the company’s business performance. The BoD is authorized to make decisions on all matters that are not reserved for the Annual General Meeting or are conferred to another governing body of the company by law, the Articles of Association or other regulations.
The members of the BoD of Precious Woods contribute experience and expertise from a wide range of different fields and have both the skills and the time required, to ensure that they can critically and constructively engage with the GM and are able to form independent opinions. Members of the BoD are elected by the Annual General Meeting for a term of one year.
The BoD is a self-constituting body and appoints the Chair from among its own members for a term of one year. After reaching one’s 70th birthday, the respective member of the BoD will step down from its post at the company’s next Annual General Meeting. At the Annual General Meeting on 14 May 2020 the re-elections of Katharina Lehmann, Markus Brütsch, Jürgen Blaser and Robert Hunink lined up. They were re-elected for a year on a proposal from BoD. The composition of the BoD is as follows on 31 December 2020: Katharina Lehmann (Chairwoman), Markus Brütsch (Delegate), Jürgen Blaser (Member), and Robert Hunink (Member).
Members of the Board of Directors
The Precious Woods BoD has four members. The following statement about the members of the BoD and their activities at Precious Woods and cross-involvements represents the situation on 31 December 2020.
Additional information about the members of the BoD can be found in their profiles on our website (Investor Relations – Corporate Governance)
Katharina Lehmann (lic. oec. HSG)
Swiss citizen, born in 1972
Chairwoman since 18 May 2017
BoD member since 2008, mandate ends in 2021
Other activities and interests:
- Since 1996 Chair of the Board of Directors and Delegate of the companies that make up Erlenhof AG, i.e. Lehmann Holzwerk AG and Blumer-Lehmann AG
- BoD member of Frutiger AG, Thun
- BoD member of Blumer Techno Fenster AG, Waldstatt
- Board member of Industrie- und Handelskammer (IHK), St. Gallen/Appenzell
- Chairwoman of Association Senke Schweizer Holz (SSH)
“Working in an economically sustainable way remains the precondition for our social and ecological activities.”
Markus Brütsch
Swiss citizen, born in 1960
BoD member (Delegate) since 2017, mandate ends in 2021
Other activities and interests:
- CEO/CFO of Precious Woods Holding Ltd since January 2014
- Executive Chairman of BoD of Oro de Cacao Ltd. since August 2019
“The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically shown how important the protection of natural forests and habitats is for human health. This interrelationship has to become better known and understood.”
Jürgen Blaser
Swiss citizen, born in 1955
BoD member since 2015, mandate ends in 2021
Other activities and interests:
- Professor of International Forestry and Climate Change at University of Applied Sciences, Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
- Global Advisor on Tropical Forests, especially for the World Bank Group
“It is the pursuit towards comprehensive sustainability – economically, ecologically and socially – that distinguishes Precious Woods even in difficult times and guarantees long-term success.”
Robert Hunink
Dutch citizen, born in 1953
BoD member since 2015, mandate ends in 2021
Other activities and interests:
- Former President of ATIBT (Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux), until October 2019
“The global COVID-19 pandemic has of course not left Precious Woods unaffected. Under often very challenging circumstances, the entire team, production – sales – administration, has shown great understanding, adaptability and perseverance while continuing to respect our core values.”
Committees of the Board of Directors
The committee meetings have been integrated with in the regular BoD meetings, due to the small size of the BoD no separate committee meetings are taking place.
The whole Board of Directors monitors the concordance between budgets, finances and organization, examines the interim statements and the Annual Financial Report as well as the budget and oversees the relations with the external auditors. It is also the responsibility of the whole BoD to ensure the monitoring of the internal control system (IKS) and risk-management procedures as well as overseeing the processes for compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
Katharina Lehmann is leading for strategy questions and shareholders’ relations, thus for the topics that were previously assigned to the Remuneration & Nomination Committee (RNC) within the Board of Directors. The whole Board of Directors ensures adequate terms and conditions of engagement for GM and the senior executives of the subsidiaries; it evaluates new members of the BoD and GM, determines remuneration guidelines and oversees corporate governance.
The BoD met a total of twelve times during 2020. Each meeting lasted between two and eight hours. The BoD keeps itself informed of business matters by means of consolidated, periodic, operational and financial reports. All relevant documents are made available to the BoD on a regular and timely basis. Chairman and Delegate of the board/CEO/CFO realized interim meetings and visited the local management in Gabon and Brazil regularly.
Further information about the decision-making process as well as the areas of responsibility and control mechanisms can be found in the bylaws, which are published on Precious Woods’ website (Investor Relations – Corporate Governance).