Organization
The GESTE Group
The GESTE Group consists of:
- the parent company GESTE Engineering SA – with offices in Renens-Lausanne, Bern and Bellinzona – and its two subsidiaries,
- GESTE Engineering France SAS in Paris and Lyon,
- GESTE Engineering Belgium SA
The subsidiaries' capital is wholly owned by the parent company, whose shareholders are all Group employees.
Board of directors
Composition
GESTE Engineering SA's Board of Directors is chaired by Mr Michele Mossi, Group CEO and founding member. Mr Michel Baud is the Vice Chairman, while Mr Luc Maurer and Ms Françoise Martin Antipas are members.
Mr Mossi also chairs the French and Belgian subsidiaries.
Powers
The Board of Directors exercises the senior management of the company and all functions assigned to it by the company's articles of association and the law.
It delegates the day-to-day management of the company's business and representation to the CEO.
Michele Mossi was born in 1970 in Ascona, Ticino, in Italian Switzerland, where he attended compulsory education and upper secondary, and obtained a federal literary diploma aged 19. After military service as a trumpet player, he went to French-speaking Switzerland, first Lausanne and then Écublens, where he studied physics at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). In 1993 he moved to Paris to complete his diploma at the Polytechnic University, and returned to EPFL the following year to begin research and doctoral work in aerodynamics and turbulence, which he completed in 1999. Having obtained his doctorate, he created the engineering office GESTE Engineering, of which he is now the majority shareholder, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO. At GESTE he continues to specialise in aerodynamics, tunnel ventilation and transport safety. With the development of the office's activities, he has widened his area of expertise to railway technology and system engineering. He has had the opportunity to lead projects in many countries, from the Middle East to the United States.
Alongside his professional activities, Michele is politically involved. He chairs political groups; since 2008 he has been a municipal councillor of his adopted city, Écublens, where he is chairing the council for the period 2019-20; he was also a member of the Canton of Vaud parliament for 10 years, from 2007 to 2017.
Michele has two adult children and is also a dedicated sportsman and amateur trumpeter, when his professional commitments allow it.
Michel Baud was born in Geneva in 1944. After attending primary school and obtaining his ETS electrical engineer diploma in Geneva in 1964, between periods of military service he did internships in Germany as a Werkstudent and in England at a language school. At the end of 1967, he joined Swiss Federal Railways in Lausanne as an engineer in the field of safety installations. After leading various projects covering the entire field of safety installations for 20 years, he directed the SI project group as deputy (1987-94) and then, as manager, the infrastructure project planning section (1995-97). Following reforms at the company, he continued his career as a deputy in the infrastructure management unit (1997-99) and finally as head of unit at the French-speaking infrastructure subsidiary (2000-2004). In 2005 he joined GESTE as an expert in the field of SI. He was appointed Vice Chairman of the company in 2006. His main activities consist in providing technical support and guidance to project managers in the field of railway safety installations, training new workers for the company and conducting expert assessments of safety installations or projects for new safety installations for the Federal Office of Transport (OFT). In addition, he brings GESTE his knowledge and experience in the railway sector in general, and railway technology in particular.
His family includes his wife Sylvianne, his daughter Emilie and his grandson Tybalt. His personal interests in general cover everything related to the sea and sailing in particular. As a citizen, he has been a municipal councillor in Morges for 4 years, active in the permanent finance committee.
Luc Maurer was born in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1973. He has 4 sons and lives in the heights of Morges.
After obtaining his BA in Economic Sciences from the University of Lausanne, he spent almost 10 years working at the fiduciary company Ernst & Young in the field of business consultancy.
During his employment, Luc obtained a Master's in Management Information Technology and in 2001 founded the IT services company Camptocamp SA, of which he is the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors. Composed of open-source specialists, Camptocamp is an innovative company in the integration of cartographic software, business management Odoo software and cloud infrastructures.
Passionate about local politics, he first sat on the legislature for the town of Morges and his village. He then joined the executive committee for his commune, of which he has been the Syndic for around 10 years. Luc is involved in regional projects.
He enjoys family outings and skiing, DIY and cooking things from his garden. He is also part of a gymnastics club in Tolochenaz, which he has chaired since 2009.
Françoise Martin Antipas was born in 1983. She studied law in Lausanne and completed her doctorate in law in 2008, writing a thesis on family-run limited companies, which she has since published in a second edition. In 2009, she joined the bar for her legal training, which she completed in 2011. She continues her practice as a collaborating lawyer in business law studies. In 2016, she obtained her Certificate of Advanced Studies and the title of specialist from the Swiss Federation of Labour Lawyers. In October 2018, she joined the firm Resolution Legal Partners in Lausanne, and since then has been practising as an independent lawyer.
Françoise is the author of publications on business and labour law, and regularly gives lectures and conferences. She also oversees a collection of practical guides on legal persons and companies.
Françoise is keen on sports (running, cycling, cross-country skiing) and Greece, and is learning Greek.
Departments
To better meet our customers' challenges, the Group is organised into 5 departments:
RAIL
URBAN
ROAD
BUILDINGS
INNOVATION
Our skills are grouped into 9 sectors covering the whole range of services related to:
- rail and urban transport technology, equipment and vehicles: System engineering – Signalling and automation – Energy – Railways – Vehicles – Equipment
- safety and quality, fire protection and pedestrian flow: RAMS, safety and quality – Ventilation and flow – Fire safety.
Our resources and our projects are then grouped by business line into Business Units (or Business Units).
General Management
The Group's general management is provided by Mr Michele Mossi. He is supported in his activities by the directors of the various offices (BM or Branch Manager), the administration and finance manager.
GESTE Engineering GROUP
inance
Responsible Admin. & Finances
Christine Champrenaud
CEO
General Manager
Michele Mossi
Assistant
Assistant
Marine Dufour
CEO
General Manager
Michele Mossi
inance
Responsible Admin. & Finances
Christine Champrenaud
Assistant
Assistant
Marine Dufour
Lausanne
Director
Michele Mossi
Berne
Director
Roland Hofstetter
Bellinzone
Director
Roberto Avanti
Paris
Director
François Rosati
Bruxelles
Director
Christophe Bodson
Extended general management
The extended general management consists of the members of the general management plus the directors of the Group's 5 departments (DM or Department Managers).
RAIL
Director
Patrice Foti
URBAN
Director
François Rosati
ROAD
Director
Roberto Avanti
BUILDINGS
Director
Andrea Krpo
INNOVATION
Director
Aryldo Russo
Operational management
The company's operational management, organised by sector, consists of the heads of the various business units (BUM or Business Unit Managers), responsible for the daily management of our engineers and technicians as well as technical and financial management of our mandates, in terms of cost-quality-time.