About

Embarking on his first in-house role, Oliver Hablützel joined the OC Oerlikon legal team in 2012, as senior legal counsel, with a main focus on M&A as well as financing. His trajectory within the company took a slight turn when in late 2014 he joined the Oerlikon Drive Systems business segment as general counsel with full responsibility for global legal and compliance matters of the segment, including setting up the legal function and processes from scratch. Oerlikon Drive System is a global leader in providing high-performance gears, market-leading shifting solutions, power transfer units, differentials and planetary drives, as well as innovative solutions for hybrids and e-drives. In 2017, the Drive Systems Segment generated CHF730m in revenues, CHF78m in EBITDA and employed over 5,100 employees worldwide. This is in part due to Hablützel’s contribution to a number of joint ventures, including his active role in a highly successful joint venture with a local Chinese partner in 2016 for bus axles: ‘I was responsible for the negotiation and implementation of the legal documentation and subsequently became a board member in the new company with active involvement in the management’, he says. As a result of the deal Oerlikon was able to increase sales of bus axels from a few million Swiss francs to expected sales of approximately CHF40m in 2018. He also contributed to the 2012 and 2013 negotiation and implementation of the divestment of the natural fibres business for Oerlikon, a transaction with a high level of legal and operational complexity. ‘As the legal head on this transaction I learned a lot about how to handle project management responsibilities, team leadership as well as how to effectively communicate with all relevant internal stakeholders’, says Hablützel. Thanks to him, legal is now fully represented in the management board of Oerlikon Drive Systems along with other key functions, like sales, engineering and HR. Prior to joining, from 2005 to 2012 Hablützel worked for a number of international business law firms in Zurich as associate in the field of M&A, financing and general corporate and commercial law, namely Baker McKenzie and Lenz & Staehelin.