Industry Former ABB renovator Jürgen Dormann dies
He once reorganized ABB: Jürgen Dormann has died at the age of 85. (archive picture)
Image: Keystone
Jürgen Dormann was known as a disciplined and sober manager. (archive picture)
Image: Keystone
He once reorganized ABB: Jürgen Dormann has died at the age of 85. (archive picture)
Image: Keystone
Jürgen Dormann was known as a disciplined and sober manager. (archive picture)
Image: Keystone
Former ABB boss Jürgen Dormann is dead. The German manager died at the age of 85.
07.10.2025, 13:27
SDA
Dormann died a week ago on Tuesday, according to an obituary published by his family in the NZZ newspaper on Tuesday. In Switzerland, Dormann made a name for himself primarily as the savior of the industrial group ABB in the early 2000s.
The manager, who was born in Heidelberg in 1940, took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors at ABB in the fall of 2001, at a time when the company was deep in the red following a risky expansion strategy and an asbestos crisis. A year later, he also temporarily took over as CEO.
With a rigorous restructuring programme, he stabilized the company, sold off peripheral businesses, reduced debt and streamlined the Group structure. His management decisions and focus on efficiency laid the foundations for the Group's subsequent recovery. In 2004, Dormann relinquished his operational duties, but remained Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2007.
"No management by anything"
Dormann was regarded as a disciplined, sober reorganizer with international experience - admired for his courage to take clear cuts, but also criticized for his uncompromising manner. "I don't do management by anything," he once told the magazine "Bilanz".
A former ABB chief lawyer said of Dormann: "He can immediately and instinctively distinguish the essential from the non-essential and also immediately makes it clear that he doesn't want to worry about the non-essential."
In addition to his time at ABB, Dormann was active in several other Swiss companies. He chaired the boards of Sulzer, Adecco, Metall Zug and V-Zug, among others.
