Fritz Gerber facts for kids

Fritz Gerber was a very important Swiss business leader. He was the boss, or Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of a big company called Hoffmann-La Roche for many years. He also led another large company, Zurich Insurance Group, at the same time for a while. Under his leadership, Roche grew a lot, especially in areas like biotechnology (making medicines from living things) and diagnostics (tests to find out what's wrong).

Who Was Fritz Gerber?

Early Life and Career Start

Fritz Gerber was born on March 22, 1929. His hometown was Huttwil in Switzerland. He studied law at the University of Bern. After finishing school, he worked for the Swiss government. His job was to help make trade deals with other countries.

In 1958, he started working at Zurich Insurance. He began in the legal department. He quickly moved up in the company. By 1965, when he was only 36, he became a director. In 1974, he was named the president of the management board.

Leading Big Companies

In 1977, Fritz Gerber became the CEO of Zurich Insurance. Just one year later, in 1978, he was also asked to be the CEO of Hoffmann-La Roche. This meant he was leading two very large companies at the same time! He managed both companies from 1978 to 1991.

When he took over Roche, the company was facing challenges. There had been an accident in Italy in 1976. This event caused problems for the company's reputation.

Growing Roche's Business

Fritz Gerber helped Roche grow a lot. In 1990, he made a big move into biotechnology. Roche bought a large part of a company called Genentech. This deal cost $2.1 billion. Through this, Roche gained access to new medicines. These included important cancer drugs like Herceptin and Avastin.

In 1991, Roche also got the rights to a special technology. This technology is called polymerase chain reaction. It is very important for studying DNA. Later, Roche bought another company called Boehringer Mannheim. This deal cost $11 billion. This made Roche the biggest company for diagnostic products in the world. It also became one of the largest pharmaceutical companies.

Later Years and Helping Others

Fritz Gerber stepped down as CEO of Zurich Insurance in 1991. However, he stayed on as the chairman of the board until 1995. In 1997, he left his CEO role at Roche. He remained chairman there until 2001. In 2004, he fully retired from the board. He was given an honorary title with Roche.

Fritz Gerber also cared about helping others. He worked to help create the Museum Tinguely in Basel. He also had his own charity. This foundation helped talented young people.

His Legacy

Fritz Gerber passed away on May 10, 2020. He was 91 years old. He is remembered for his strong leadership. He helped make Roche a world leader in medicine and diagnostics.