Honorary doctorate for Seghezzi

25 November 2013. Hans Dieter Seghezzi was appointed professor at the then St.Gallen Graduate School on 1 April 1988, with the assignment of reforming the Chair of Technology – which he did, and he also established the Institute of Technology Management, for which he still works as a Foundation Board Member.

Seghezzi first studied physics at the Technical University of Stuttgart and laid the foundation for the field of “gases in metals” with his doctoral thesis entitled Untersuchungen im System Tantal-Sauerstoff. Later he worked at the Max Planck Institute and then for many years as Head of Research and Development at Hilti AG in Liechtenstein. During that time, in his capacity as an honorary professor of the University of Stuttgart and as a lecturer of ETH Zurich, he gave lectures on fastening technology in construction before he was appointed professor at the HSG.

The most important subjects in Hans Dieter Seghezzi’s extensive field of work included quality management, of which he was always an exemplar and which he demanded from others. In keeping with this, Seghezzi founded the Swiss Association for Quality Management Systems (SQS), which he chaired from 1983 to 2003, and from 1986 to 1988, he was also President of the European Organisation for Quality.

The University of Salzburg has awarded an honorary doctorate to him for his services to economic sciences.