New routes to success

Roman Boutellier worked tenaciously to provide a foundation for scientific excellence: by strengthening ETH’s human resources, its library and its IT services, and by launching several construction projects. He was always intent on ensuring that the university’s infrastructure was ideally suited to academic needs.

The office of the vice-presidency for human resources and infrastructure. comprises 800 employees and a budget of some 450 million Swiss francs. Boutellier drew inspiration for managing this complexity from the corporate world – no surprise considering that he has held top positions in both science and industry. After studying mathematics at ETH Zurich, he went on to be appointed to the management of Leica Heerbrugg, the chair of innovation and logistics at the University of St. Gallen and, later, the role of CEO at SIG Holding in Neuhausen.

Building for the future

Boutellier became a professor for technology and innovation management at ETH in 2004, and in October 2008 he was named to the university’s Executive Board. The breadth of his expertise enabled him to quickly turn theory into practice: “As a professor, I supervised many doctoral theses on topics concerning organisation at ETH. That’s how some of our risk management approach or the concept for ETH technology platforms came about, to name some examples.”

ETH President Lino Guzzella is impressed by Boutellier’s achievements as vice-president: “He carried out his responsibilities extremely effectively, and contributed significantly to ensuring ETH’s future development. Roman Boutellier’s wealth of experience and analytical skills were very important in forming opinions within the executive board. On behalf of ETH as a whole, I’d like to thank him for everything he’s done.”

The Hönggerberg site has seen extensive expansion, and current construction work is creating accommodation for some 1,000 students. Boutellier’s tenure saw many other important building projects at ETH Zurich, including the new research and teaching building on Leonhardstrasse, the construction and expansion of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Tessin, the Agrovet-Strickhof agricultural research centre, plus the university’s participation in the future Zurich Innovation Park in Dübendorf.

What will change as from 2016? “I’m looking forward to regaining control over my own diary,” Boutellier says, “and I relish the prospect of spending more time with my family and my hobbies.” But he’s not about to start turning down chances to prove himself – including in the mountains. This year, the keen climber has already mastered a classic alpine challenge: the northeast wall of the Kingspitz in the Bernese Alps.