50 Year Magazine R&M

12
2014 | 50 Years of R&M | Succession and the First External CEO
A Long-Term Succession Plan
Change of management: After Renato De-Massari withdrew from R&M’s Board
of Managers in 1996, Hans Reichle handed over the company’s operational
management to his sons in 1999. Thirteen years later, Michel Riva became the
first CEO outside of the Reichle family.
Renato De-Massari and Hans Reichle
had already been considering potential
successors long before they stepped
down from the R&M leadership. While
no-one in the De-Massari family was
interested, the three brothers in the
Reichle family, who all had quite different
personalities and backgrounds, were
being discussed. The youngest, Thomas
Reichle, soon announced his choice not
to join the family business. Peter and
Martin, on the other hand, both showed
interest. Having spent over ten years
working for various other companies,
the two brothers joined R&M rather
late at the age of 29. The company
founders had previously promised to
step down on their sixtieth birthdays.
050.5882
1989
140 employees already
In less than eight years the workforce grows from 24 to 140 employees. The newly developed
office block at Binzstrasse 31 in Wetzikon is officially unveiled. The company acquires another
property in Wetzikon during the same year.
The Berlin Wall comes down, a wall that for 28 years divided not only a city, but the whole of Germany.