Christoph Franz

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Franz at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2013

Christoph Franz (born 2 May 1960 in Frankfurt) is a German engineer and manager who served as chief executive officer of Lufthansa from 2011 until 2014.

Early life and education[]

Franz studied industrial engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt and completed his studies with a Ph.D. in economic sciences at the same university. He also studied at the École centrale de Lyon and conducted post-doctorate research at the University of California, Berkeley.^[1]

Career[]

Franz joined Lufthansa in 1990. During that time, he was involved in Lufthansa’s turnround following the Gulf War, when he served in the office of , the then chief executive.^[2]

In 1994 Franz moved to German railway operator Deutsche Bahn. From 2004 until 2009 he was CEO of Swiss International Air Lines.^[3]

From 1 January 2011 until 30 April 2014 he served as CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG as successor of .^[4] During his time in office, he sought to fight back against the budget airlines by eliminating duplication between Lufthansa’s point-to-point short-haul services and Germanwings.^[5] Also under his leadership, Lufthansa completed the sale of its UK subsidiary British Midland International to International Airlines Group.^[6]

In 2011, Franz accompanied Chancellor Angela Merkel on an official trip to Kenya, Angola, and Nigeria.^[7]

In 2013, Franz stepped down as chief executive of Lufthansa midway through the airline’s restructuring programme to become chairman of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche the following year.^[8][9] He had been a member of Roche’s board since 2011.^[10]

Other activities[]

Corporate boards[]

• Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), Member of the Advisory Board
• Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Member of the Board of Directors (since 2017)^[11]
• Zurich Insurance Group, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2014)^[12][13]
• Stadler Rail, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2011)^[14]
• Swiss International Air Lines, Member of the Board of Directors (2009-2016)
• JetBlue, Member of the Board of Directors (2008-2011)^[15]

Non-profit organizations[]

• Avenir Suisse, Member of the Board of Trustees^[16]
• Baden-Badener Unternehmer-Gespräche (BBUG), Member of the Board^[17]
• European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), Member^[18]
• Lucerne Festival, Member of the Board of Trustees^[19]
• University of Zurich, Swiss Institute of International Studies (SIAF), Member of the Board of Trustees^[20]
• University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Member of the Advisory Board^[21]
• University of St. Gallen, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2018)^[22]
• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Member of the Assembly (since 2017)

References[]