Helmut Maucher

Helmut Oswald Maucher (9 December 1927 – 5 March 2018) was a German businessman. He served as the CEO of Nestlé from June 1990 to June 1997. He joined the company at a young age, completing an apprenticeship at the Nestlé SA factory in Eisenharz, Germany just after finishing high school. He served as honorary chairman of Nestlé SA, Vevey, Switzerland, having been elected to that position by the board after relinquishing its chairmanship in May 2000.

Helmut Maucher
Born9 December 1927
Eisenharz, Germany
Died5 March 2018
Bad Homburg, Germany
Alma materFrankfurt University
OccupationBusiness executive

Early life

Helmut Maucher was born on 9 December 1927 in Eisenharz (Allgäu), Germany. When he was 19 Nestlé AG bought the milk production company in Eisenharz in the Western Allgau in which he and his father were employed. After finishing his A levels he was then doing a business apprenticeship in the same company. He then changed to Nestlé Frankfurt, where he was studying business administration at Frankfurt University while working and finished his study with a Master in Business/Commerce.

Career

Between 1964 and 1980 he occupied different management positions at Nestlé Frankfurt, in 1975 he became General Director of the Nestlé Group Germany. On 1 October 1980 he was asked to change to Switzerland to become General Director of the whole Nestlé Group and member of the executive committee.

In November 1981 he became delegate of the supervisory administration board of Nestlé AG in Vevey. Between 1990 and 1997 he was both, president and delegate of the supervisory administration board. In this time he expanded the company to the largest food company worldwide with 260,000 employees. After stepping down from his position as delegate in 1997 he continued to be president of the supervisory administration board until 2000 which is when he was given the position of honorary president.[1][2] He was the first non-Swiss ever to be given such an honour and position in a major Swiss company.

Maucher served on the board of trustees of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies.

Controversy

In a 1997 interview, Maucher stated: "There is a certain percentage of prosperity waste (German: Wohlstandsmüll) in our society; people who are either unmotivated, semi-invalid, tired or who just take advantage of the system." Maucher was alluding to the highly developed German welfare system, which in his opinion removed the necessity to take an employment. He was subsequently criticized for the usage of the term "waste" as a description for human beings, which culminated in Wohlstandsmüll having been chosen as the German Un-Word of the Year 1997 by a jury of linguistic scholars.[3]

Honours and distinctions

Death

Maucher died in his home in Bad Homburg, Germany on March 5, 2018.[7][8]

Bibliography
  • La stratégie Nestlé, French translation by Monique Thiollet, Maxima Ed., Paris, 1995,[9] ISBN 2840010720

References
  1. "General Mills, Nestle plan joint venture". Lodi News-Sentinel. UPI. 1 December 1989. p. 14. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  2. John A. Sparks; Victor E. Vouga; L. John Van Til, eds. (1985). The infant formula feeding controversy : an annotated bibliography, 1970-1984. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co. p. 518. ISBN 978-0-8403-3739-9. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  3. Spiegel Online: Ein Jahr, ein (Un-)Wort! (in German).
  4. "EFHU - European Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem". 26 July 2011. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  5. "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 1302. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  6. "Dr. Jelle Zijlstra Award 2018 Laureate". 10 January 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  7. "Nestlé mourns the passing away of Dr. h.c. Helmut Maucher". Nestle corporate site. 7 March 2018.
  8. Flitter, Emily (8 March 2018). "Helmut Maucher, Executive Who Transformed Nestlé, Dies at 90" – via NYTimes.com.
  9. "Catalogue collectif". Opac.rero.ch. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  • Literature of and about Helmut Maucher (http:/d-nb.info/gnd/11906412x) in the catalogue of German National Library
  • Marc Brost and Arne Storn "one needs backbone" –interview in Die Zeit Nr.49 on 01.12.2005
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