The SWARCO Supervisory Board and Executive Board have announced that the company’s founder and CEO, Consul and Councillor of Commerce Manfred Swarovski has died.
They say he passed away peacefully at the age of 77 on Sunday 13 May.
In a statement the company says, “SWARCO has lost its mastermind who managed to bring his group of companies to world renown in the field of road safety and intelligent traffic management in the course of nearly half a century. The traffic industry loses an internationally highly respected advocator of road safety and environmentally sound mobility who untiringly underlined the need for continued public investment in road infrastructure in order to save lives.”
SWARCO AG Executives Philipp Swarovski, Daniel Sieberer and Michael Schuch jointly said, “Manfred’s entrepreneurial spirit, his visionary ideas and his human way are both an obligation and incentive for us to continue SWARCO, his life’s work, successfully in his spirit. Manfred’s principle has always been to shape a powerful and integrated organisation out of a huge number of individual companies. This mentality will be in our focus, too, in order to further strengthen the SWARCO brand on a global level.”
Dr. Josef Prettenhofer, Chairman of SWARCO AG’s Supervisory Board, added “Manfred Swarovski has always aimed to ensure the stability and continuity of the corporation. That is why he planned his succession ahead of time by continuously handing over his tasks to the Executive Board members during the past years. They will continue to run the company strategically and operationally in close alignment with the Supervisory Board.”
What started in 1969 in Austria with a small factory for the production of reflective glass beads has become – nearly fifty years later – the international traffic technology corporation SWARCO, employing some 3,700 people and generating annual revenues of 675 million EUR. Following its leading idea of improving quality of life for all travellers, SWARCO today offers one of the most comprehensive portfolios in the fields of road safety and intelligent traffic management; supporting the growing mobility needs of society with turnkey systems and solutions in road marking, urban and interurban traffic control, parking solutions, and public transport management.
The statement concludes, “The SWARCO Family is deeply moved by the loss of its head Manfred Swarovski and expresses its heartfelt condolences to his wife Elisabeth, his sons Alexander, Philipp and Manfred and to the brothers and sisters of Manfred.”
