Carsten Schloter Dead: Swisscom CEO Apparently Committed Suicide

The Huffington Post

Posted: 07/23/2013 8:23 am EDT Updated: 07/23/2013 10:43 pm EDT

Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter was found dead at his home on Tuesday morning, Reuters reports. Police said the death was "an apparent suicide."

Swisscom, the largest phone company in Switzerland, has named Urs Schaeppi interim CEO of the company, according to Bloomberg.

GENEVA — Switzerland's leading telecommunications company says its chief executive has been found dead in an apparent suicide.

Swisscom says the body of 49-year-old Carsten Schloter was found Tuesday morning at the CEO's home in the Swiss canton (state) of Fribourg.

A company statement Tuesday says "the police are assuming it was a case of suicide; an investigation into the exact circumstances is underway."

Swisscom, a publicly traded company in which the Swiss government has the majority stake, says no more details of his death were being disclosed in consideration for his family.

Schloter joined Swisscom in 2000 as head of Swisscom Mobile and was appointed CEO in 2006.

The company says deputy CEO Urs Schaeppi would temporarily lead it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/carsten-schloter-dead_n_3639023.html


Mr. Carsten Schloter served as the Chief Executive Officer of Swisscom AG from January 20, 2006 to July 2013 and as its Member of Executive Board since March 2000. Mr. Schloter served as the Chief Executive Officer at Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd. since January 1, 2008. Mr. Schloter served as the Chief Executive Officer ad interim of Fastweb SpA. Mr. Schloter served as Chief Executive Officer of Swisscom Mobile AG from March 2001 to January 2006 and served as its Head of Public Com and Mobile Com since March 1, 2000. Prior to that, he held various positions at debitel AG. In 1992, Mr. Schloter founded debitel France, where he was member of management until 1994. From 1985 to 1993, he held various positions at Mercedes Benz France SA. From 1995 to 1999, he held various positions at debitel Germany. Mr. Schloter served as Chairman of the Board at Fastweb SpA since June 2007. He served as the Chairman of Swisscom IT Services and Fastweb. He served as the Chairman of Swisscom Mobile Ltd. He served as a Member of Supervisory Board of Vodafone D2 GmbH. Mr. Schloter graduated from the University of Paris, Dauphine, with degrees in Business Administration in 1986. He passed away on July 2013.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=4821174&ticker=SCMN:VX


Carsten Schloter – People’s Energy for the Corporation

Carsten Schloter in conversation with Bernhard Sterchi, 4 December 2012

How to run a business that has to compete in an ever faster moving world of innovations in technology and customer needs? Swisscom has mastered these challenges better than many in the industry. In addition, in my opinion, Swisscom stands out by the fact that the management team has a high awareness of the importance of the common mindset for the performance of the company. On another occasion, Carsten Schloter has even gone so far as to say that the bottleneck in the recent complexity crisis is not the technology, not the money, but people. The following key messages from our conversation describe his present focus in leadership.

Carsten Schloter_Energie von Menschen

Carsten Schloter_People’s energy


Swisscom Chief Schloter Found Dead in Suspected Suicide


By Thomas Mulier Jul 23, 2013 9:33 AM CT

Carsten Schloter, Swisscom AG (SCMN)’s chief executive officer for seven years, was found dead at his home today in what police said is a suspected suicide.

There’s a “very high” probability Schloter, 49, killed himself, said Pierre-Andre Waeber, a spokesman for the police. The company said it’s in mourning and won’t disclose any further details out of consideration for his family. Switzerland’s largest phone company named Urs Schaeppi, head of its Swiss business, interim CEO.

“A leading actor in the Swiss economy has been lost,” Swiss Transport Minister Doris Leuthard said in a statement. “Carsten Schloter successfully positioned Swisscom in a highly competitive and rapidly changing market.”

Schloter, a German citizen, joined Bern-based Swisscom in 2000 and became CEO in 2006. He helped lead the purchase of Fastweb SpA, an Italian fixed-line provider, in 2007. The Swiss company paid about 4.6 billion euros ($6 billion) for the unit to make up for slowing growth in Switzerland.

The deal has failed to reverse Swisscom’s fortune. The company had its first quarterly loss in more than a decade in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to a 1.2 billion-franc ($1.3 billion) writedown for Fastweb.

Swisscom said it’s in mourning and won’t disclose any further details out of... Read More

Swisscom’s boards and workforce are “deeply saddened and pass on their condolences to the family and relatives,” Chairman Hansueli Loosli said in a statement. Christian Neuhaus, a spokesman for Swisscom, declined to comment further.

The shares fell 0.8 percent to 413.7 Swiss francs as of 4:29 p.m. in Zurich after rising as much as 0.5 percent in earlier trading.

Swisscom, like most European carriers, is coping with sluggish consumer demand as competitive pressure pushes phone bills down across the continent. The company has been experimenting with new offerings to attract customers. It has said such initiatives will raise costs, at least temporarily.

Schloter previously worked at Mercedes-Benz and Debitel, according to Swisscom’s website. He had three children.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net