Press Release on the 2022 General Meeting - Qualitas AG

About the job

This year’s General Meeting of Qualitas AG was once again able to take place in the usual setting with the presence of shareholders and guests. Qualitas was pleased with a positive business year and a good order situation in the IT sector.

Expansion of Shareholding

As already mentioned at the last General Meeting, the Board of Holstein Switzerland has decided to integrate the association’s IT into that of Qualitas AG. This decision simultaneously laid the foundation for the redesign of Qualitas’s shareholding. Holstein Switzerland will newly be included in the shareholding. At the same time, Mutterkuh Schweiz has also expressed interest in a stronger participation and will increase its shareholdings. A company valuation was commissioned as the basis for the share transfer. Currently, clarifications and discussions with the involved associations are ongoing. According to Board President L. Casanova, negotiations should be concluded and contracts signed during this summer.

A Resignation and Renewal Elections

In terms of medium-term planning and to distribute responsibility more broadly within the administration of swissherdbook, Markus Gerber has decided to resign from the Board of Qualitas AG. As his successor, Erich Walder from Buch am Irchel, a member of the administration at swissherdbook, was elected to the Board at today’s meeting. The remaining Board members stood for re-election and were unanimously confirmed by the shareholders’ meeting.

Succession Planning for Head of Breeding Value Estimation

Urs Schnyder will succeed Jürg Moll in January 2023. He will thus relinquish his current position as Head of Breeding Value Estimation. An internal succession solution for this position was found with Adrien Butty. From January 2023, he will take over the management of the Breeding Value Estimation department. Adrien Butty started as an intern at Qualitas AG. After completing his M.Sc. ETH in Agricultural Sciences, he wrote his doctoral thesis at the University of Guelph in Canada on genome sequences and variations. Since 2019, he has been employed at Qualitas as a geneticist. With his new role, Adrien Butty will also become part of the management of Qualitas AG from January 2023.

Expansion of IT Resources

The IT business division is doing well. Managing Director J. Moll is pleased with full order books. However, with the order situation, resource demands also increase. Although the IT market is dried up and well-trained IT personnel are hard to find, Qualitas has so far always succeeded in recruiting qualified IT staff. To meet resource demands in the future as well, Qualitas is currently examining cooperation with foreign IT providers.

Challenges for Agriculture

Current issues such as climate change, resource scarcity, and environmental impacts pose enormous challenges for agriculture in general and cattle production in particular. Politics and society expect agriculture to contribute to finding solutions. The Qualitas team will be particularly in demand here in the area of breeding value estimation and will be able to make an important contribution to these future topics.

About Qualitas AG

As a competence centre for IT and quantitative genetics, Qualitas AG supports the Swiss livestock sector as well as research institutions with specific database and software applications. Innovative solutions enable its customers to perform extensive analyses and gain insightful knowledge about livestock.